Easy Dragon's Tongue Beans

I found the most beautiful ingredient at Metropolitan Market today! I have never been introduced to Dragon's Tongue beans and they are now officially one of the prettiest and most interesting vegetables I have come across. The best way I can describe them is that they are flatter than a regular green bean and muted yellow in color with saturated purple streaks and spots. After conducting basic research, I learned that they can be picked to use as a snap bean or allowed to mature into a shell bean and that they are usually blanched or sauteed to preserve their fresh, crisp flavor.

Metropolitan Market presented the Dragon's Tongue beans on a produce stand with green beans, yellow beans and purple beans. My favorite combination aesthetically was Dragon's Tongue with the yellow and purple so I came home with all three varieties. The recipe below, although simple, is the one I chose in order to showcase such a gorgeous product.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups beans
2 Tbsp olive oil
5-6 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp dried basil or 1 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped (I used fresh basil)
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Steam beans until tender, about 3 to 4 minutes. (I put about 2 inches of water in pot, brought water to boil, placed a metal steamer in pot and covered to achieve steaming process). Toss with olive oil, garlic, basil, salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

As you can see from the photo above, when steamed, Dragon's Tongue beans lose most of their color and purple beans turn green. I became aware of this during my initial research so I made sure to have Brad snap a photo of the beans prior to preparing the recipe. The natural colors are so vibrant that I was a bit sad when they faded. Oh well, the important thing here is that the beans were delicious. The garlic could have been toned down a bit but other than this, I would prepare them the same way. This quick-steam preparation kept the beans crisp and the mild flavor intact. The beans would also be perfect sauteed with olive oil and seasoned exclusively with salt and pepper. I thoroughly enjoyed preparing such a lovely ingredient that I didn't even realize existed until today. How fun is that?

Recipe Source:
tastytrends.blogspot.com