Green Beans with Honeyed Cranberries

Skip that green bean and almond casserole this year and embrace some fresh green beans!

Hopefully, this is a fresh take on them for you. It's certainly easy and delicious.

For Thanksgiving, this is distinctly American, as green beans originated down in Mexico and moved on up to the United States over time, ready for those European Colonists to eat 200 plus years ago.  Cranberries are also native to the USA, and so are pine nuts.  If you don't like pine nuts, try pecans or black walnuts.  Black walnuts are hard to find; those big walnuts in your Thanksgiving nut bowl are English.

Enjoy...

Green Beans with Honeyed Cranberries

Serves 6 ( 6 at a regular meal, more people at Thanksgiving, since people tend to have soooo many choices.  But, you decide, based on the recipe and the people attending.)

2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1 1/2 lbs fresh green beans, strings removed
2 tbsp pine nuts
3 tbsp honey
salt to taste

If doubling the recipe, it's probably easier to cook all the cranberries, then cook the beans in batches of 1 1/2 lbs.  Toss the nuts, cranberries, and honey in the big bowl at the end of all the cooking.

In a large covered skillet or pot, melt the butter over medium high heat.  Add the cranberries, cooking until they are broken down and fully "one with the butter."  It will look like cranberry sauce, and it tastes extremely sour, so don't even try it.  Scrape the sauce into a large bowl.  Stir in the honey.

Return the pot to medium high heat and add the green beans.  Add 1/4 cup of water, and cover the pot.  Cook until they are crisp and still crunchy, not limp.  Mine just took about 4 minutes.  Check after 3 and go from there.  Add water if it dries up, too.

Add the beans and the pine nuts to the bowl, salt them, then toss gently to fully coat.  Salt to taste.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Per serving (1/6th):  Calories 131, Fat 6, Carb 20, Fiber 5, Protein 2