The Absolute Best Way To Cook Long Beans Is A Quick Saute

Also known as pea beans or yard-long beans, long beans are a popular legume cultivated and consumed in the Far East. True to their name, long beans usually grow between 1 ½ and 3 feet and are sold in circular bundles. Like green beans, they're harvested for their bean pods and have a nutritional content more closely resembling a vegetable than a typical legume.

While long beans look like extra-long green beans and share a similar flavor and juiciness when cooked, they benefit most from a waterless cooking method. Steaming and boiling may be par for the course for green beans, but long beans benefit most from a saute. Instead of releasing water as they cook, long beans are especially absorbent. If you boil or steam them, they'll be oversaturated with water, resulting in a chewy and tasteless bean.

Using oil and medium to high heat to saute the beans for a minute or two will produce a crisp, juicy long bean and enhance its vegetal, earthy flavor. Plus, it's faster than boiling, steaming, or roasting them. A flavorful oil like peanut, sesame, or olive oil will impart even more complexity to your long beans as they absorb the hot oil while they cook.

Preparing long beans for a saute is simple: Snap off tough or dried-out ends, rinse off any dirt or debris, and cut them into 2 or 3 inch stubs. Since the legume is most popular in Asian cuisine, long beans are commonly sauteed in a stir fry with aromatic seasonings, flavorful oils, and pungent sauces. Drawing inspiration from Chinese cuisine, you could fry ginger and garlic in sesame oil in a wok until fragrant before adding the long beans and a dash of soy sauce. They'd also be perfect additions to various stir-fried noodle dishes from pad Thai to lo mein.

As an alternative to sauteing, you can sear long beans in oil in a flat frying pan and drizzle them with the sauce of your choice. Seared long beans will have a tasty char that would pair well with honey, ginger, miso, and lime sauce. Southeast Asian cuisines incorporate long beans into coconut milk-based curries. You can thus saute your long beans with aromatics in a deeper pan or pot before adding chunks of potatoes, chilies, curry paste, and coconut milk, then simmer into a comforting stew to serve over steamed rice. Even after simmering the stir-fried beans for long periods, they'll retain a crunchy texture instead of turning to mush.