Green beans with black olives
These are very good, served with steak, especially Barbara’s steak with Yorkshire Blue and whisky, or with Pretty Damn Quick Persian Salmon.
Alternatively, you can serve it as a warm salad as part of a lunch spread – along with aubergines and baby plum tomatoes with yoghurt-tahini sauce, and some crusty toast for example.
Any leftovers, throw into a salad!
Recipe for green beans with black olives
For 3-4 or alternatively make for two, and throw any remaining into a salad the following day.
Ingredients
- 300g/11 oz fresh green beans – don’t try to use frozen
- Juice and zest of half a small lemon (or a quarter of a large one)
- 4 tbsps good quality olive oil – or, if you are using olives in olive oil, use that oil
- About 12 pitted black olives
- Handful of mint
- Salt for cooking, and textured salt for finishing
- Freshly ground black pepper, or some Urfa pepper flakes
Instructions
- Boil a full kettle.
- Top and tail the beans and cut into bite sized pieces.
- In a non-aluminium saucepan get the water boiling, and add some salt. Add the beans. Cook for five minutes. Drain, and refresh by putting under the cold tap.
- Meanwhile roughly chop the olives.
- Put the beans into a pretty bowl, add the olives, the olive oil, the zest and the lemon juice, some textured salt (eg Maldon), and some pepper (or, truly wonderful, some Urfa pepper flakes).
- Snip over the mint leaves.
