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Meaty with a dash of veggies

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Vegetables Green beans Lunch / Dinner Side Dishes

Green beans with sesame dressing

Published: 09.07.2021 ยป Last updated: 01.14.2023

Toasted sesame seeds are ground and mixed with rice vinegar, dashi, mirin, soy sauce and sugar to make the dressing. Briefly boiled green beans and thinly sliced red onion are tossed in to complete this lovely side dish.

Green beans with sesame dressing

The green beans are boiled? Yes, boiled. While sauteeing or stir frying vegetables may seem like the easiest and fastest ways to make a delicious side dish, there are times when boiling vegetables can be just as quick and the result can be just as wonderful.

Boiling green beans then plunging in iced water

The boiling time is short. The moment the color of the beans deepens to a darker shade of green, they were scooped out and dumped in a bowl of icy water. This stops the cooking immediately to ensure that the green beans retain some crispness.

Grinding toasted sesame seeds in suribachi

For the sesame dressing, we use a suribachi (traditional Japanese mortar and pestle) to grind toasted sesame seeds. If you donโ€™t own one, you may use a regular mortar and pestle but the process of turning toasted sesame seeds into a coarse paste may take longer.

Will a mini processor work? Well, it will grind the seeds but unless you can pour liquid ingredients into the processor, you will need to scrape the paste into a bowl to stir in the liquid ingredients. So much flavor (think of the oil from the sesame seeds) will get lost in the transfer.

In the end, it is your decision what to use to grind the sesame seeds. If you go with a food processor, you might want to add a drizzle of sesame seed oil into the dressing to make up for whatever flavor is lost along the way.

Adding dashi, vinegar, mirin, soy sauce and sugar to ground sesame seeds

After grinding the sesame seeds, rice vinegar, dashi, mirin, soy sauce and sugar are added, and everything is stirred together to complete the dressing.

Tossing green beans in sesame dressing before adding sliced onion

By the time the dressing is done, the green beans should have cooled completely in the icy bath. Scoop out and dump into the dressing. Then, add thinly sliced onion.

Tossing green beans and sliced red onion with sesame dressing

Toss everything together and your side dish of green beans with sesame dressing is ready to be enjoyed.

Green beans with sesame dressing

Connie Veneracion
A side dish that can go with chicken, meat or fish. The savory tangy-sweet dressing coats the green beans beautifully while the thin slices of onion give the dish more crunch and a bold bite.
Green beans with sesame dressing
Print Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes mins
Cook Time 8 minutes mins
Total Time 18 minutes mins
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Japanese
Servings 3 people

Ingredients
  

  • 250 grams green beans
  • 1 red onion

Sesame dressing

  • ยผ cup toasted sesame seeds
  • 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons dashi
  • 1 tablespoon mirin
  • 1 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce
  • 1 ยฝ teaspoons sugar

Instructions
 

Prepare the vegetables

  • String the green beans and cut into two-inch lengths.
  • Boil water in a pot, add the green beans and cook just until the color deepens.
  • Scoop out the green beans and dump into a bowl of iced water. Leave to cool.
  • Peel the onion, cut into halves and thinly slice.

Make the sesame dressing

  • Place the sesame seeds in a suribachi and grind to a coarse paste.
  • Pour in the rice vinegar, dashi, mirin and soy sauce.
  • Stir in the sugar and mix until dissolved.

Toss in the vegetables

  • Drain the green beans well and add to the dressing.
  • Add the sliced onion to the beans and dressing.
  • Toss to coat the beans and onion slices with the sesame dressing.
  • Transfer the contents of the suribachi to a shallow bowl and serve.

Notes

Adapted from a recipe in NHK World.
Print Pin Recipe
Keyword Green Beans

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Connie Veneracion, Chiang Mai, 2020

Hi, I’m Connie!

Welcome to Umami Days, a blog that advocates innovative home cooking for pleasurable everyday dining. No trendy diets, no food fads and definitely no ludicrous recipe names like crustless quiche, noodleless pho or chocolate lasagna.

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