Chinese Green Beans

Little One and I are obsessed with green beans.  We’re especially crazy about Chinese Green Beans.  You know, the green beans you get when you go to a Chinese buffet?

I tried to reproduce the dish at home so we can have it whenever we want.  This came pretty close.

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Chinese Green Beans

Craving Chinese green beans like at the Chinese buffet? Flavourful green beans that are a great accompaniment to lunch or dinner dishes.

Author: Christine McNaughton

Cuisine: Chinese

Recipe type: Side Dish

Serves: 4

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  10 mins

Total time:  20 mins

Ingredients

• 1 lb green beans, cleaned and trimmed
• vegetable oil for frying
• 2 - 3 Tbsp garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• red pepper flakes (optional)

Instructions

1. Trim ends of beans. After washing beans, make sure they are very dry. You don't want the water hitting the oil and splattering.
2. Heat oil in wok and fry green beans in batches for 2 minutes . You don't want to overcrowd the wok. Cook 2 minutes or until the green beans look slightly wrinkly/blistered.
3. Remove flash fried green beans and if there is excess oil, you can blot the green beans with paper towel to remove oil. Discard oil from wok.
4. Over med-high heat, add minced garlic to wok. Cook garlic only until fragrant, making sure not to burn the garlic. Return beans to wok, add oyster sauce, soy sauce, and rep pepper flakes, Stir to coat beans with mixture.
5. Place green beans on serving dish and enjoy!

Notes

I don't add salt because I find there is enough salt in the oyster sauce and soy sauce. The Chinese buffet green beans taste a bit sweeter than mine do, but if you want a bit of extra sweetness, I suppose you can add a bit of sugar to your mixture. Again, I find that the oyster sauce itself has enough sweetness for my liking.

3.5.3251

For the love of green beans!

The texture and flavour of these Chinese green beans make this one of my favourite side dishes.  My eleven year old daughter can eat an entire plate of these, so we often have to do rock-scissors-paper for the last serving!  Although my husband is not a fan of green beans, he really likes this dish!  He said growing up on the farm, he was forced to eat tons and tons of green beans as a child, and now as an adult, he cannot eat green beans!  Too much of a good thing maybe?