Recipe Wednesday: Green Beans

This weeks Recipe Wednesday features some ideas for all the green beans that are currently being harvested.  If the leaves of your plants are looking lacy and skeletonized, the reason is pesky little Mexican Bean Beetles. Click Here to learn more about them.

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Green Beans with Lemon & Garlic Sauce

Makes 6 Servings

1 lb fresh green beans
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Steam green beans over boiling water until slightly tender and bright green. Remove beans and place in serving bowl.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in small saucepan over low heat.

Add garlic, and let sweat until aromatic, approximately 5 minutes.

Remove pan from heat and squeeze the lemon through a small strainer into pan. Add salt and whisk sauce together.

Pour sauce over beans and toss to coat.

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Dilled Green Beans

1 pound green beans
Fresh Dill
Feta Cheese
Red Onion
Fat Free Italian Dressing

Cut the beans into bite sized peices and blanch for about 7 minutes. Drain and run under cold water. Add dill, feta and onion to taste and toss with dressing. Serve chilled.

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Minted Green Beans (Rachel Ray)
 

1 to 1-1/2 lbs fresh green beans (cleaned and stem ends clipped off)
Olive Oil
1/2 cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
10 mint leaves chopped
small handful of fresh parsley chopped

Heat skillet on medium high heat, add 2 Tbsp olive oil. When hot, add green beans and saute for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add broth, and simmer for 5-10 minutes until desired tenderness. Remove from heat and add mint and parsley, stir well.

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Pickled Green Beans
 

2 pounds fresh green beans, rinsed and trimmed
4 cloves garlic, peeled
8 sprigs fresh dill weed
4 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
2 1/2 cups water

Cut green beans to fit inside pint canning jars.

Place green beans in a steamer over 1 inch of boiling water, and cover. Cook until tender but still firm, for 3 minutes. Plunge beans into ice water. Drain well.

Pack the beans into four hot, sterilized pint jars. Place 1 clove garlic and 2 sprigs dill weed in each jar, against the glass. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to each jar.

In a large saucepan over high heat, bring vinegar and water to a boil. Pour over beans.

Fit the jars with lids and rings and process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Mexican Bean Beetles

Mexican Bean Beetle

If you are growing beans, you have most likely already spotted these 1/4" long, yellowish brown beetles.

Not sure if you have them, but you've noticed that the leaves of your beans look skeletonized and lacy. You may not have noticed these beetles because they prefer to feed from the underside of leaves.

Flip over the leaves and you will most likely find any of the following:

The above photo shows the many stages in the lifespan of a Mexican Bean Beetle, from eggs to larvae to adult beetle.

These beetles overwinter and females begin laying eggs in the spring. Eggs will hatch in about 5-14 days and the larvae feed, grow and pupate for about 2-4 weeks.  They can produce 1-3 generations per year.

Last year I experienced both a a strong early summer and late summer generation on my green beans.

Inspect your beans daily, beetles easily pick off or will drop to the ground if disturbed. Reducing populations by smashing all stages from eggs to beetles are your best defense.

A few minutes each day inspecting your plants are all it takes to manage these beetles.

Currently, I have found many, many clutches of eggs on the undersides of my bean leaves and several larvae.   I was happy to find a few Spined Soldier Beetles also on my beans which are natural predators of the the Mexican Bean Beetle.

Spined Soldier Bug

Spined Soldier Bugs also prey on caterpillars, grubs, tent caterpillars, fall armyworms, and sawfly larvae. So don't be scared of this little guy, he is a welcome addition to the garden.

Since these beetles overwinter, our best line of defense as a community garden is to reduce their numbers by destroying them in their early stages as eggs and larvae and also destroying any adult beetles as they come along.