Organic yellow, purple and green beans at the farmer’s market. Just waiting for me to purchase and make Open Sesame Green Beans

Hi Green Bean Lovers,

Last Spring I attended a cooking class with Julie Daniluk.  She gave a great overview on wellness through nutrition while she made several dishes.  Once they were all complete we had a lunch from the dishes she prepared.  I had been doing a cleanse from Crazy Sexy Diet and asked her how to you come out of a cleanse.  Her response was “slowly”.   She told me that so many people do not take the time to slowly integrate foods back into their life.  She then told me about how you need to test different foods for a few days and see how your body reacts before you include that food back into your diet.  I knew I had to buy her book to understand more.  I felt great doing my plant-based diet cleanse that eliminated many foods that cause inflammation and knew that I did not want to feel crappy again.   Julie’s book Meals that Heal Inflammation is a great resource for better understanding the interactions of foods and inflammation.

On the day of her class we enjoyed several items but because of my dietary restrictions, her crew served me up a special plate that included a double serving of Julie’s Sesame Green Beans (page 251 of her book) along with her Pesto Sweet Potato Mash (page 253) and Mary’s Organic crackers.  I was in a happy place as the food was so good and I could eat it all.

The following week I went to the farmer’s market and bought green and yellow beans and was determined to make Julie’s green beans.  As I was at Riverbend, my pantry was not fully equipped for my new eating approach so, as usual, I substituted a few items and created a new version of the green beans.  I made this recipe every weekend of the summer.  All my guests at Riverbend enjoyed them.  The best compliment of all was learning that my recipe was now the recipe of the summer for my guests who now bring it as their contribution to a meal.

I also had fun and tried making the recipe with purple beans and yellow beans.  When I steamed the purple beans they turned green.  That too was a cool thing to experience and share with our guests.  I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.  I like them so much, I will be making them tomorrow.

Open Sesame Green Beans – use white sesame seeds if you cannot find black ones

Open Sesame Green Beans

• Two large handfuls of green beans (or one handful of green, one of yellow)
• 1 tbsp gluten-free tamari
• 2 tbsp Sesame oil – cold pressed or toasted
• 2 tbsp of olive oil – cold pressed
• 1 tbsp Organic rice vinegar (Apple cider vinegar works too)
• 1 tsp Black sesame seeds

Directions

1. In a mason jar, mix the tamari, sesame oil, olive oil and rice vinegar.
2. Seal with a lid and shake to combine.
3. Clean and remove end off both ends of the beans.
4. Using a two part pot with steamer section, add about one inch of water to the bottom pot.
5. Let water come to a boil.
6. Add one handful of the beans to the upper steam compartment.
7. As soon as you see steam coming from the top (about one minute), remove the beans from the pot.
8. Immerse the beans in cold water immediately changing water to cool them down quickly.
9. Remove beans from water.
10. Start steaming second handful of beans in the top container and steam until you see the steam rising again.
11. Quickly immerse in cold water.
12. Remove beans from water.
13. The beans should be crunchy and now able to absorb the dressing.
14. Place all the cooled off beans in a large serving bowl.
15. Pour the dressing over the beans and toss.
16. Sprinkle the black sesame seeds over the beans and toss again.
17. Toss a few more time to coat the beans
18. Serve immediately or store covered in the fridge and let the flavours absorb into the beans.

Tips

• You can use green, yellow or purple beans with equal success.  It looks really nice with two colours of beans.
• You can substitute the rice wine vinegar for apple cider vinegar while on a candida diet.
•  No double steamer pot?  Just add the beans directly to hot boiling water for one minute to blanch them.  Remove and immerse in ice cold water immediately.
• You can cook all the beans at once in the double steamer, I find it hard to cool them down quickly when you cook too many at a time.
• I save the remaining dressing in the serving dish and add it back to my mason jar and use it on a salad the next day.
• Julie’ recipe is amazing and has added ingredients to deal with inflammation

May your guests enjoy your recipes and include them in their recipe collection.

To green beans and wellness,

Jo-Ann Blondin, your 9CupChallenge partner