Tag: side dish

If you’re being good and eating your green beans, you may as well make a treat of them. These beans, sautéed in butter and maple syrup, are tender, sweet, and delicious.

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Sweet Maple Green Beans

Green beans sautéed in butter and maple syrup.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword green beans, side dish, vegetables

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

• 2 cups green beans
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 3 Tablespoons pure maple syrup
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

• Steam green beans until softened, about 15-20 minutes.
• In a skillet over medium heat, melt the butter.
• Add the maple syrup and green beans. Saute for a few minutes.
• Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Need help with steaming green beans to softness? Check out these tips from The Spruce Eats.

Why do I recommend pure maple syrup? Read my post on the topic.

This recipe is really a proof of concept that empowers you to play around with different flavors to come up with different but similar recipes. Here are some ideas:

Tangy Molasses Green Beans: Instead of maple syrup, sautee with molasses. Molasses is less sweet and will give the beans a slightly more earthy or bitter taste.

Sweet Honey Green Beans: Instead of maple syrup, use honey. There is a wide variety of honey flavors, so you can even experiment within the honey palate!

Glazed Green Beans: Instead of maple syrup, use a combination of brown sugar and your choice of white wine, red wine, sherry, brandy, or even water. Heat together until it forms a syrup and then proceed with the recipe as normal.

If you’re not satisfied with salt and pepper to taste, there are other herbs, spices, and even some sauces, you can mix and match with your syrups. Here are some ideas:

• yellow mustard
• lemon pepper
• garlic salt
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• basil
• pesto sauce
• lemon zest

Also, if you wish to go completely off the rails, you can toss the maple syrup and butter out completely and use a touch of soy sauce and olive oil. Toss in some sesame seeds, and you have an Asian-inspired green bean dish.

Still not happy? Use honey instead of maple syrup, and curry powder instead of salt and pepper. Now you have curried green beans!

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This recipe was originally posted in 2015 and was updated in 2021.

Ingredients:

• 1 acorn squash
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
2. Cut squash in half from stem to tip. Scoop the seeds and stringy pulp out of the cavities and discard. The insides of the halves should now be smooth. Score the insides in a cross-hatch pattern, with about a half-inch deep cuts.
3. Place the squash halves cut side up in a roasting pan. Add about 1/4-inch of water over the bottom of the pan. This will help prevent the squash from burning or getting dried out while baking.
4. Using one tablespoon of butter per half, run the insides to coat. Leave the remaining butter in the halves to melt during cooking.
5. Crumble a tablespoon of brown sugar into the center of each half.
6. Bake between an hour and an hour 15 minutes. The tops of the squash halves should be nicely browned, and the flesh should be very soft and cooked through. Remove from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes before serving.

Tip: If you are using unsalted butter, sprinkle with a little salt after rubbing with butter.

 
Recipe Inspired by: My mom, Classic Baked Acorn Squash and Baked Acorn Squash with Brown Sugar and Butter.

A summer squash has a strong resemblance, in flavor and texture, to a zucchini. You can, in fact, substitute zucchini in this recipe, but it will probably bake a bit more quickly.

Ingrediets:

• 1 medium summer squash
• 2 eggs
• 1 ½ cups breadcrumbs (try panko breadcrumbs for a crunchier texture)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon mustard power
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400° F. Grease a large baking sheet with olive oil and set aside.
2. Cut your summer squash into wedges. Remove the seeds if they are quite large and set wedges aside.
3. Whisk the eggs in a dish and set aside.
4. In another dish, combine the breadcrumbs, paprika, mustard powder and salt and pepper.
5. Start by dipping the wedges, one by one, into the egg mixture and then the breadcrumb mixture. Place each wedge on the greased baking sheet. Continue until all the wedges are done.
6. You can bake the wedges as is for about 30-40 minutes (until soft inside and golden brown on the outside), but if you want a more golden texture, drizzle or spray some olive oil on top of the wedges. Flip halfway through baking.
7. Serve with ranch or another favorite dip.

Fennel has a very distinct licorice flavor and when it’s grilled becomes a tender, melt-in-your-mouth experience you don’t want to miss.

Ingredients:

• Fennel
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Directions:

1. Trim the tops off the fennel. The stringy parts can be used as an herb in your cooking, but aren’t needed for this recipe. You can even use the stalks in place of celery in some recipes, but realize they’ll have a much stronger flavor than celery.
2. Trim the bottom of the bulb and then cut the remaining bulb lengthwise into quarters. Rub with olive oil, salt and pepper.
3. Place on grill at medium heat to sear the fennel. Move to indirect heat, with the cut side up, and cook covered for about 45 minutes or until fennel is very soft. You can tell when it’s done by texture, rather than time. You definitely want to make sure it’s tender.