I don’t know how you spent your Memorial Day weekend, but mine involved numerous bottles of wine consumed in conjunction with a healthy diet consisting of pizza, a meaty feast at White Gold Butchers (nary a veggie in sight unless I can count the heavenly crispy beef-fat potatoes?), the season’s first grilling project (Vietnamese pork riblets cooked in caramel sauce) and homemade vanilla ice cream many times over. Also like 5 pieces of arugula and an asparagus.
Basically, despite my best efforts to incorporate greenery into my holiday weekend diet, I began this week feeling less than stellar, with a faint rose headache, a dry mouth and the overall malaise specific to when you have been subsisting only on simple carbohydrates, alcohol and meat. This feeling has only been exacerbated by the 11 empty wine bottles hanging next to the garbage can (“in the recycling”, we call this can-adjacent space) and the sink, and frankly the entire sink area, filled to the brim with dishes.
If any of this sounds even remotely familiar, you probably woke up on Tuesday with your body telling you, in a very pressing way, that you should eat some vegetables. I’m jumping on that bandwagon and telling you that you should specifically eat these green beans, which I have come to love as a delicious and healthy side dish to any vaguely Middle Eastern meal. Or as a lunch to any vegetable- and nutrient-deprived body.
It’s actually perfect timing that I lived through an unhealthy holiday weekend and found myself hankering for veggies, because this was not actually going to be what I posted today. On the docket were roasted poussins marinated in rose harissa, and I was super excited to share them with you. But then I accidentally, and quite permanently, deleted the from the VSCO camera app. For context, it’s not the first time I’ve done this, but it never gets any less frustrating realizing one second after you hit “delete” that you’ve done something un-doable.
But back to these beans, because they’re a pretty fantastic substitute, if you ask me. They’re cooked super simply in boiling water, and then piled high with a mixture of freekeh, tahini and a number of other delicious ingredients, so they’re a pretty substantial side. Two things to note here that might be helpful if you make these. First, freekeh is the same as spelt. You can find it in the bulk grains section of Whole Foods. Second, if you do not live in Europe you might find that it’s impossible to find chervil. You may spend several days looking for it! Don’t fret if you come up empty – a 50/50 split of flat-leaf parsley and tarragon will make a mighty fine, and much more accessible substitute.
So with that, go on and get some greens into your body. After all, it’s almost Friday again!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup / 70g cracked freekeh, rinsed and drained
- 1 1/2 lbs. / 700g haricots verts, trimmed
- 1 cup / 20g chervil leaves (or 1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley and 1/2 cup chopped tarragon)
- 1/2 cup / 50g walnuts, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon Aleppo chile flakes
- Salt
- 5 tablespoons / 75g tahini paste
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried mint
- 1 large clove garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
Instructions
- Place the tahini paste, olive oil, lemon juice, dried mint, garlic, maple syrup and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Whisk until combined and set aside.
- Fill a saucepan with plenty of water - it should be 2/3 full - and bring to a boil. Add the freekeh and 1/2 teaspoon salt, turn down the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes, until the freekeh is cooked through but still retains a bite. Drain and refresh well under cold water. Transfer the freekeh to a large bowl and set aside.
- Fill a large saucepan with plenty of cold water and add 2 teaspoons salt. Place over high heat, bring to a boil, then add the beans. Boil rapidly for 4 minutes, until the beans are just cooked, then drain and refresh under cold water. Pat the beans dry well before adding them to the freekeh. Pour the tahini sauce over the freekeh and beans and mix gently so that the beans are completely coated. Just before serving, mix in the chervil and the walnuts along with the chile flakes.
Notes
From Plenty More
