I had a request to post this recipe for Green beans with Bacon and Caramelized Onions this week instead of next week. Since I love my readers, I am happy to oblige!!
For those folks joining us a little late, this vegetable side dish recipe is part of a menu plan for Valentine’s day, see original post here. But this dish is actually easy enough to make on a week night!
I would like to thank my cousins Jeanie and Lew for the inspiration for this recipe… I had this dish at their house this summer, and then I went home and adapted it to be in the Nourishing Traditions style of cooking.
Rating: 4 forks (key)
Difficulty:
Easy
Ingredients:
1 pound fresh green beans (thin or thick, whatever kind you can get)
1/2 pound bacon, diced (or more if you wish)
1 large sweet onion, diced
2 T butter
1 T balsamic vinegar (you could substitute apple cider vinegar or wine)
sea salt & pepper
Preparation:
Cook bacon until almost crisp in a cast iron skillet large enough to hold the whole side dish. Pour out most of the bacon fat (leave enough to lightly coat entire bottom of pan) and reserve it in a mason jar. Add the butter to the pan with the reserved bacon fat, and add the onion. Saute the onion for about 15 minutes or more until it golden brown and caramelized. When the onions are nearly done, add the 2 T of balsamic vinegar and deglaze the pan.
While the onions are cooking, steam the green beans until barely cooked (should still be crisp and not limp – if you’re using very thin green beans you may be able to skip this step and just add the beans to the pan directly). Add the green beans to the cast iron skillet, along with the reserved bacon pieces. Cook all ingredients together for about 5 minutes, until the green beans are completely cooked. Every bean should be lightly coated with the fat (no dry spots). Add more reserved fat if needed.
If the recipe seems dry at any time, add a few teaspoons of the reserved bacon fat.
Taste and season with sea salt and pepper. You may not need any salt at all depending on the amount and saltiness of your bacon.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for this recipe. I knew I was saving bacon drippings for something…this is it!
Growing up, I never ate fresh green beans any other way that with bacon and onions. That’s how they were prepared in my family for generations and I have always made them that way for my family too.
No better combination imho!
Green beans for Valentine’s Day?? Huh? They’re not in season now. They come in season in the summer. Even the regular supermarkets don’t have them fresh this time of year where I live (Colorado). However, your recipe does sound yummy and I love green beans so I’ll have to try it in the summer.
Hello,
I was emailed your blog through a WAPF member and am now regularly checking it! I was introduced to this kind of eating a few years ago, first through Michael Pollan, then Nina Planck, and finally Sally Fallon, and it’s a beautiful thing. I’m 22 and am happy to have been introduced to this at a fairly young age (although how much sickness/fogginess I would have avoided as a child/teenager if I would have eaten this way, I don’t like thinking about!) I’m excited to read all about your trials and successes learning and teaching this wholly holy way of eating!