These green beans will give your meal a lot of flavor and color. They are bright, crisp, and spicy thanks to crushed green peppercorns, fresh red chile pepper, and garlic. Regular green beans will work perfectly fine if Chinese yardlong or “snake” beans are not available.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 3 mins |
| Total Time: | 13 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons green peppercorns, drained
- 1 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound Chinese yardlong beans
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1 small red chile pepper, seeded and chopped fine
- 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- In a small bowl, using the bottom of a glass or jar, crush the peppercorns into a coarse pulp. Stir in the cilantro.
- Heat oil in a large wok or skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in beans, garlic, brown sugar, chile pepper, peppercorns and cilantro. Stir-fry for 45 seconds. Pour in the water and cover to steam for about 2 minutes. Serve immediately.
Reviews
I thought these beans were fab!…. but my husband didn’t like them at all so I probably won’t make them again just for me. but thanks for sharing.
Excellent! I did make one minor adjustment…I used soy sauce instead of water at the end and oh one other thing…I blanched the beans so they stayed bright green! But delish!!!
These were very tasty. My first try of these long beans. I cooked them longer because they weren’t even close to being cooked at the time in the recipe. I probably cooked somwhere in the range of 8-10 minutes and they still were nice and firm. The only seasonign I would suggest would be a pinch of salt. I was unable to find the green peppercorns – looked in 3 stores so I used lots of black pepper
I think this is an excellent recipe if you’re using the ingredients exactly listed. While the green peppercorns aren’t totally necessary (used black pepper here), it is absolutely essential to be able to use yardlong beans. They are less sweet than the western versions of green beans, which helps bring to life the sugar in the recipe. I also subbed red chile pepper with about a tablespoon of Asian hot chile sauce and it turned out quite well.
I’d caution anyone using ground dry green peppercorns to add them a little at time to get the amount right. I only used about half of the amount that the recipe called for and it was still too much for my family’s taste. But the recipe is good and I’ll try it again.
Do not try this recipe with ground black pepper and dried red chile flakes.I used 1 tbs black pepper and found that the pepper was way too overpowering. I didn’t like the recipe so I would suggest following the recipe instead of substituting.
Came out great. I also added finely chopped ginger which put this recipe over the top. Thanks for submitting it.
Delicious! The cilantro is a perfect ingredient in this recipe.
These were so good! They had a very authentic flavor and I love the spiciness. I will definitely make these again and again.
so so so so good! this is my favorite recipe i’ve found so far on this site. my boyfriend says it tastes “gourmet”. so much flavour! i recommend this to anyone. i believe this recipe would really impress any guests. you can adjust the spiciness by adjusting the amt of red chili.
This was very good. Aesthitically pleasing, too. I used only regular green beans. 🙂
Yowza!!! The submitter of this recipe (Annabel) is going to cringe when she reads that I tried this will canned french style green beans – but that was all I had – couldn’t get to the store for fresh beans and I wanted to jazz up canned beans. I have a few recipes that do that but I decided to try this. I used all the ingredients Annabel suggested – I ended up grinding the peppercorns with dried cilantro with my mortar (again-all I had at the time). Then I heated up the oil, added everything except for the drained canned beans – sauteed everything for 60 sec., then added the beans and heated through. No one suspected they were canned and everyone loved them. I ended up admitting I used canned and shared the recipe. Annabel, I will do you justice and do this again using the real thing next time. This is a keeper.
I didn’t really enjoy this recipe, I think primary because I don’t always like the taste of cilantro. I couldn’t get yardlong beans in my little suburban grocery store and I couldn’t find green peppercorns. I won’t make this again. It wasn’t bad, it just didn’t turn out to be a taste that I really enjoyed.
WOW! These were really really good. I wasn’t sure how it would taste with the cilatro, but all the ingredients compliment each other nicely.
I added some hot mustard at the very end of this recipe to balance the sweetness a bit. Served this as a side dish at a party and everyone wanted the recipe.
These are fabulous. I’ve added it to my menu and my customers love it!
I fix these with so many different meals now. I am so glad I found this recipe. So very simple!!
I was looking for these asian beans, and these were great. I followed the recipe the first time and felt they weren’t done enough. Since then I have made them many times but fry for 5 minutes and steam for 5 minutes (or so). The beans stay crunchy but are much better IMO.
I have to confess. I didn’t have green peppercorns. I just used a lot of freshly ground black pepper. THE BEANS WERE AMAZING !! I used the leftovers in a stir-fry the next day. I can’t wait to buy green peppercorns to see what the difference is!