the Older Bolder Life Vegetable Wednesday 4 July: Grill-Charred Green Beans with Homemade Harissa

We have a friend down in Austin, an uber-talented chef by the name of Libby (she runs a very popular catering business down there); we actually met Libby one summer given the confluence of a couple of passions we share: cooking great food and fly fishing.

Libby bestows on we mere mortals great recipes now and again – like this Grill Charred Green Beans with Homemade Harissa she sent us a few years back.

We happen to share another passion with Libby, that being a love of interesting and spicy foods from other cultures; this quick and easy riff on harissa paste that you can whip up at home quite easily is a great example.

Green beans are a great side year round and this has become one of our favorite preps; seemingly everybody we’ve ever served it to has pestered us for the recipe.

And if you don’t have a grill basket yet, this recipe may be the very excuse you need to pick one up…

1 medium red bell pepper
3 medium Fresno chiles
1 medium jalapeno chile
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp kosher salt
1 + 2 tbsp good olive or avocado oil
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground cumin (or more)
1/2 tsp ground coriander (or more)
Good salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

2 lb fresh green beans, tipped and trimmed

Start by roasting/charring the peppers on the grill, under the broiler, or over a gas flame until soft and charred. Throw the peppers in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let them steam for 12-15 minutes.

When they’ve steamed, peel off the charred skins, stem and seed, then chop coarsely and drop into your trusty food processor along with the minced garlic, and 1 tsp salt. Pulse into a coarse paste and scrape down the bowl.

Now add the the oil, lemon juice, coriander, and cumin until smooth; season to taste with salt and fresh ground pepper.

Toss the trimmed beans into a bowl, drizzle with the remaining 2 tbsp of oil and stir to coat all the beans. We like to now grill (in a grill basket) over fire on the grill, though you can also char in a cast-iron skillet (or other heavy skillet) on the stove top. The objective is to grill the beans, picking up some char and blistering, until they’re perfectly crisp-tender.

When the beans are done, toss them back in the bowl you drizzled them with oil in, drizzle the harissa over and mix well. These are great warm or at room temperature too.

Enjoy.