Burnt food. It used to be the mark of a distracted cook. The phone rings and the carrots get singed. A kid asks a question about algebra and the chicken comes out black. You capture a Pokémon in the pantry and your “go-to” burgers have gone too far. “Oops” would be your only excuse. Nowadays, though, blackened, charred and blistered is not only acceptable but is a whole new cooking trend that’s worth mastering. However, you have to learn to burn artfully… There’s a difference between a carcinogenic pile of ashes and the ultra-sophisticated, ultra-caramelization that can amplify flavor. I’m hoping you take a look at these Spicy Grilled Green Beans with Cashews and Basil and see the latter.
When it comes to char it’s long been acceptable to serve beef with a nicely blackened exterior. When I was growing up the only way my mother would eat filet mignon was “charred rare” (sometimes called “black and blue”). Every backyard grillmeister knows that a burger with good looking grill marks has always been a badge of honor. However, the modern cook’s fascination with char probably started with pizza. There was a time when pizza was served uniformly red with a pasty white crust. Yum, yum thought Neopolitan neophytes. But things have changed in the pizza parlors I frequent. The best places have slowly been raising the temperature in their wood-fired ovens creating pies freckled with black char.
Spicy Grilled Green Beans
Thanks to these pizza pioneers eaters everywhere are learning to embrace char. I myself have discovered a love for “burnt” vegetables and the grill is a great way to get the kind of burn I like. Grills, particularly charcoal grills, tend to be very, very hot. That’s why they’re perfect for quick cooking small vegetables like grilled green beans. The interior cooks quickly before the surface gets too charred.
Because of their slim profile, green beans might not be an obvious choice for grilling. When working with high heat and fast cooking it’s easy to imagine grilled green beans slipping through the grate and landing in a bed of hot coals. To make the job less precarious there are specialized vessels known as grill baskets. They’re designed to work on a hot grill and have small perforations that do a good job letting the heat and smoke come through to the food. However, I’m no fan of arguably superfluous kitchen gadgets. So I’ve experimented and found that a metal cooling rack works beautifully when laid in a crosshatch pattern on top of the grill grates. You’ll get perfectly blackened, charred, blistered, tender-crisp grilled green beans in no time over the high heat of the coals, with zero loss. GREG
Grilled Spicy Green Beans with Cashews and Basil
Print This Recipe Yield 4Source Greg and Gabi Quiñónez DentonPublished
Ingredients
- ½ cup (plus 3 tablespoons) extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon sriracha sauce
- 2 tablespoon Asian fish sauce
- 2 tablespoon sherry vinegar
- 2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed tangerine juice (or substitute orange juice)
- ¼ teaspoon finely grated tangerine zest (or substitute orange zest)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (plus more as needed for seasoning)
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper (plus more as needed for seasoning)
- 1 pound fresh green beans (trimmed)
- 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes (halved)
- 1 small red onion (peeled and thinly sliced)
- 1 serrano chile pepper (thinly sliced)
- ½ cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
- ⅓ cup roasted cashews
Directions
Make the vinaigrette: Combine ½ cup olive oil, srirarcha, fish sauce, vinegar, lime juice, tangerine juice and zest, ¼ teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a bowl; whisk well to combine.
Grill the beans: Prepare a grill to high-heat. Place the green beans in a large serving bowl with the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil; season with salt and pepper and toss to combine. Transfer to a grill basket, or, if you have one, place a sturdy metal cooling rack upside down on the grill, forming a crosshatch pattern that should make the green beans harder to slip through. Let the beans cook until lightly charred, about 4 minutes, then either toss the grill basket or gently turn the beans on the cooling rack to char the other sides. Continue to cook until tender-crisp, about 4 more minutes.
Return the beans to the serving bowl. Add the tomatoes, red onions, and sliced serrano. Add enough vinaigrette to lightly coat. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.
Divide the beans and tomatoes mixture between 4 serving plates. Garnish with the basil and cashews. Serve warm or at room temperature.
This is Great! I made them on the gas grill. I set the temperature on low and closed the lid. The beans were on a cookie sheet as described.
Wow, what a nice combo of flavors!
I am constantly trying different vegetables for the grill and continually surprised how well almost every vegetable works on the grill no matter what their size is. I love the spicy sauce you mixed with the green beans.
Hey Greg,
Don’t know if you remember this, but at the very first Camp Blogaway the guy who was critiquing photos looked at one of mine — a photo of a thin crusted pizza with a beautiful char on it. He said nobody wants to look at burnt food 😉
P.S. never put them on the grill, but I love charring my green beans in a sauté pan.
Brilliant recipe Greg! I love the cashews and the fish sauce sounds perfect. I’m making this one!
What a beautifully composed dish Greg, I just love the colours and those enormous cashews! A limitless charring is great, but too much and I’m up all ight.
The orange seasoning sounds wonderful too. I’d love this as a lunch with a softly poached egg on top!
I have to show this to my Grillmeister aka husband, he does an awesome job with corn, potatoes and peppers.
So this is the second time you have grilled something that I would never have thought of. The maitake mushrooms (I finally found some and they were amazing), and now green beans. Love the heat you add to these, and may try them tonight while the grill is on managing my burger cravings,
Well now this sounds pretty darn good to me. It’s good to stop by and see what’s cooking. I have been away from the food world for quite some time now. I hope all is well with you. I have missed visiting.
Your photo background is sooo perfect with these spicy green beans!