Sue's Recipes and Other Stories

Lemony Braised Beans (6)

Ingredients

500g green beanstrimmed and halved widthways
500g runner beansstalks trimmed, stringy part removed, then cut on the diagonal into 3-4 pieces
12 garlic clovespeeled
1 green chillipoked a few times with a small knife
120ml olive oil
2 onionspeeled and finely chopped
250ml vegetable stockor chicken
salt and black pepper
2 lemonszest finely grated, to get 2 tsp, and juiced, to get 3 tbsp
10g tarragon leavesroughly chopped
10g dill leavesroughly chopped
10g parsley leavesroughly chopped
35g preserved lemoninsides discarded and skin julienned, about 1-2

Instructions

Put a large saute pan for which you have a lid on a high heat. Once it’s smoking, add a quarter of all the beans and cook, tossing occasionally, for about five minutes, until charred in places. Transfer to a tray and repeat in batches with the remaining beans (to speed up the process, cook them in two pans).
Add the garlic and chilli to the pan and cook in the same way for about five minutes, until charred all over, then add to the beans. Leave the pan to cool slightly.
Put 90ml oil in the pan and set it on a medium-high heat. Once hot, add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, until soft and golden brown.
Add the charred beans, garlic, chilli, stock, a teaspoon and a half of salt and a good grind of pepper. Bring to a simmer, lower the heat to medium-low, cover and cook for about 20 minutes, until the beans are very soft, then stir in the lemon zest and juice.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the herbs, preserved lemon, the remaining oil, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and plenty of pepper.
Serve the beans warm or at room temperature, with the herb mix stirred in just before serving.