Stewed Tomatoes and Green Beans

This is another dish I made while with my family in Philly (I'm a little late in posting it).  My mom told me that she had about a pound of green beans, so I should figure out a recipe for them.

My mom also has a lovely herb garden.  The mint is constantly threatening to take over.

No, this is not all of it.

I found a recipe for stewed tomatoes and string beans, and guess what!  It had mint!  I would love to credit the original recipe, but I legitimately can’t seem to find it again.  I’ll update the post when I do, promise.

Anyway, it called for a lot of oil and seeded tomatoes.  I don’t understand the point of seeding tomatoes when you’re trying to cook them down into a liquid or a mush, like when you make tomato sauce.  Don’t you want the extra tomato flavor?  Isn't the extra liquid useful?

So, I kept all the seeds and juices in with the tomatoes, and the liquid from that nicely replaced most of the oil.

I also cooked the string beans for a much shorter period of time than the original recipe called for so that they kept their crunch.  I prefer my foods to have a crunch to them.

The mint….well, I’ll admit I was skeptical about the mint at first.  The truth is, it was a wonderful addition.  It added a brightness to the dish that I wasn’t expecting.  And even though there’s a good amount of mint in there, it’s still a pretty subtle flavor.

This is a simple, easy dish with a lot of down time and little to no technique involved.  It also goes really well with the Mediterranean tempeh I recently posted.  Really well.

Stewed Green Beans and Tomatoes

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil, or enough to cover the bottom of the pan

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound green beans, trimmed

5 tomatoes, chopped (seeds and juices included)

1/4 cup shredded fresh mint leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1.  Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until softened and beginning to brown, about 8 minutes.

2.  Add the garlic and cook another minute.

3.  Add the tomatoes (with all their juices), stir, and cover the pan.  Allow it to stew for 20 minutes on medium to high heat, stirring occasionally.  The juices from the tomato and the trapped steam will create the “stew” part of it as the tomatoes break down. 

4.  While the tomatoes cook, chop your string beans into smaller chunks.  After 20 minutes, add the string beans to the pan.  Cover and allow the beans to cook in the stew for 5 minutes or so (I like my green beans to still have a crunch to them).

5.  Turn off the stove.  Stir in the mint and add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve warm or room temperature.  Enjoy!