Blistered Green Beans with Creamy Tahini and Fresh Hot Sauce by Alison Roman

Green beans are notorious (in my mind at least) for being exceptionally boring vegetables. Like asparagus, they’re easy to overcook. We’ve all eaten cafeteria green beans – limp, soggy strands of yellowish green mush, and we’ve all regretted those experiences entirely. While I hope to never allow my green beans to get to that level of devastation, I must confess that I’ve made some disappointments. 

Blistered green beans are anything but a disappointment. To blister green beans, toss them in a bit of vegetable oil with salt and pepper before sauteing them in a cast iron skillet over HIGH heat. It took only 7 minutes for my beans to show a light charring and turn a bright green color. By utilizing high heat for a short time, the beans retained their fresh, snap-like quality and firm structure, while still heating through completely. It was the easiest and most rewarding way of cooking green beans I’ve yet to encounter. Much like Alison’s Perfect Asparagus method, I will turn to the blistering method for green beans moving forward. 

Beyond the exceptional cooking method, there are several other elements in this dish that elevate the beans. The first involves toasted hazelnuts, which, by now, you know that I completely ignored. I could have used toasted pistachios but I had neither the time nor the interest. The fresh hot “sauce” comprises distilled vinegar, half a jalapeno, garlic, salt, and sugar. It’s best to combine these ingredients first so the jalapeno has some time to pickle in the vinegar. 

Finally, the creamy tahini, a mixture of labne (or yogurt), tahini, and lemon juice, provides an interesting foundation and kind of dipping sauce for the plate of blistered beans. The beans and hot sauce get tossed together before sitting in the tahini. 

Bright, fresh, tangy, slightly spicy, creamy, crunchy are some of the fun adjectives that describe this dish. Words that I never before would have associated with green beans. Life is full of pleasant surprises. 

94 recipes cooked, 131 to go.

Grilled Carrots with Limey Hot Sauce and Cotija by Alison Roman

It’s summer, friends! Which means grilling season! Which means of course I had to make a list of all of Alison’s recipes that require (or strongly suggest) using a grill. My in-law’s live about 15 minutes away, and have both gas and charcoal grills. I plan to utilize these grills for all of the grill recipes until we move to Chicago in September. 

I find it necessary to disclose that I’ve never grilled before. I still haven’t. I asked my father-in-law to monitor these carrots while I prepped the rest of the meal. That said, I intend to be more hands-on in the future! 

To prep these delicious carrots, I simply tossed them in oil and salt and pepper before plopping them directly on the grill. The grill is set to medium-high, and Alison says the char should happen in 8-10 minutes. We took the carrots off at 10 minutes, but I must admit that they could have spent another 5 and gotten even softer, charred and more delicious. Margaret agreed. 

That’s right, Margaret! Margaret, more than anyone else in my life, has taught me how to cook. She’s also one of my best friends. She and I cooked this recipe together, and it was such a treat. 

Once grilled, the carrots are tossed in a “limey hot sauce” which is really just a mixture of lots of lime juice, honey garlic and minced jalapeño. It’s not a marinade, it’s a sauce. A very thin liquid sauce with chunks of minced jalapeño. It’s really good, and the leftovers were passed around the table for more drizzling on truly everything on our plates — Alison’s charred corn and some grilled chicken. 

The final element is cotija cheese. We crumbled far more than the recipe calls for on top of the carrots. Margaret would have liked for a better way for the getting the cotija to adhere to the carrots. It tended to fall off once plated, which meant scooping up cheese crumbles with your fork after each bite of carrot. Doable, but not ideal, nor elegant. Although, can you eat carrots elegantly? I’m unsure. 

Overall, these carrots are a fun summer night dish that most definitely will appear again in meals to come. 

90 recipes cooked, 135 to go.