Middle Eastern Green Beans and Tomatoes

"Green beans and tomatoes are a terrific combination which I found out when my BF and I ordered this dish at a middle eastern restaurant a few years ago. It can be found in Italian cuisine as well but I prefer the middle eastern (Lebanese) variety. This is a meatless version which I adapted from a recipe off the internet and like to serve over rice or couscous, making a light meal or more substantial side dish. The idea is to cook until the beans are in between soft and crisp so they have a nice consistency that goes well with the tomatoes. If you have no problem with inauthenticity, sprinkle with parmesan cheese too and you'll get the best of both worlds."
 
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photo by ncmysteryshopper photo by ncmysteryshopper
photo by ncmysteryshopper
photo by Kumquat the Cats fr photo by Kumquat the Cats fr
Ready In:
55mins
Ingredients:
11
Serves:
4
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ingredients

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directions

  • Begin cooking rice.
  • Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium heat and saute onions about 5 minutes.
  • Add green beans and saute about 8-10 minutes.
  • Add garlic and saute 1 minute.
  • Add tomatoes, salt, pepper, allspice and sugar and bring to boil. At this point if you feel the mixture is too dry you can add up to 1/4 cup of water.
  • Cover and cook 15-20 minutes.
  • Serve over warm rice with parsley sprinkled on top if desired.

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Reviews

  1. This was a terrific side dish and I didn't even add in the allspice.
     
  2. Very good for DD1 (4 years old) and I but I did use recipe#79179 instead of allspice which is a common substitution I make, I also used a larger quantity. I omitted the sugar to be healthier and used frozen green beans and a bit of extra garlic. I did not add the pepper as there was already a significant amount in the spice mix and I added sea salt, to taste, not measure. I did not think the parsley would go well with this so I didn't use that option. Like others I had to add the additional water but that may be because I used drained canned tomatoes rather than fresh ones. I served this over rice as a main vegetarian dish. I would make this again for myself but not DH as he doesn't like green beans.
     
  3. This was easy enough to put together and I really liked the flavors. Only thing I would do next time is not serve it over rice as recommended. I liked it better just as a nice green bean side dish. Made for ZWT6
     
  4. A very nice way to prepare fresh green beans. It was served over steamed basmati rice. I used roma tomatoes and did find that the dish required more than the 1/4 cup water that was suggested. Made for *ZWT6*
     
  5. This turned out surprisingly well, and was quite tasty. I do have a few suggestions to make about the actual recipe, though: unless you have very wet tomatoes, or are using canned ones, you will almost assuredly need the extra 1/4 cup water (and next time, I plan to use more). The recipe doesn't state how high to cook at during the final cooking phase -- we guessed it was low heat. Finally, keep an eye on it during that final phase -- we didn't, and the mixture got baked to the pan and was too dry (which is why we'll be adding more water next time). Still, it ended up being quite good tasting, despite all these problems! Edited to add: we've now made this several more times, and it gets better each time. I recommend using lots of extra garlic. Also, we like having it over pasta instead of rice sometimes.
     
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Tweaks

  1. This turned out surprisingly well, and was quite tasty. I do have a few suggestions to make about the actual recipe, though: unless you have very wet tomatoes, or are using canned ones, you will almost assuredly need the extra 1/4 cup water (and next time, I plan to use more). The recipe doesn't state how high to cook at during the final cooking phase -- we guessed it was low heat. Finally, keep an eye on it during that final phase -- we didn't, and the mixture got baked to the pan and was too dry (which is why we'll be adding more water next time). Still, it ended up being quite good tasting, despite all these problems! Edited to add: we've now made this several more times, and it gets better each time. I recommend using lots of extra garlic. Also, we like having it over pasta instead of rice sometimes.
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>Clockwise from upper left, my dear friends Cranberry, Quincy, Kumquat and Kiwi. All of our cats were born in the wild and adopted by us. Zaar Chefs I have met so far: Elmotoo, justcallmeToni, ~Rita~, Midwest Maven, Bird&amp;Buddha (both of them) and most recently, Ms*Bindy from upstate New York:) Wonderful, sweet, friendly people and great chefs! Most relevant thing to mention here is that I am a vegetarian, and recently became a&nbsp;vegan&nbsp;(almost 100%). To put vegetables and other things not meat or fish on the table I work as an actuary (in my case anyway, a combination of statistician, number-cruncher and/or programmer). For fun I like to travel. Just came back from&nbsp;Namibia, a peaceful democracy in Africa with lots of animals! Got some terrific pictures of lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, rhinocerous, hyenas, all kinds of antelopes, giraffes and zebras. Namibia is the second most sparsely populated country per square mile, just behind Mongolia. Update:&nbsp; We went to Italy this Spring.&nbsp; We had lots of pizza and pasta.&nbsp; The pizza is so much better in Italy, particularly the crust.&nbsp; The Amalfi coast was absolutely beautiful.&nbsp; Spectacular natural scenery (Canada and Alaska are really beautiful, Patagonia in Chile is sublime, Iceland is unique) has been my latest passion as far as travel destinations but I have seen quite a few big cities too (Paris, Berlin, London and Madrid to name a few). On my bulletin board at work I keep a list of every country I've visited (other than the U.S. of course). So far I've made it to five continents: Europe, Africa, South America, Asia and North America of course. I've got only two other continents to conquer:) I don't usually have difficulty finding vegetarian dishes here in the U.S. or overseas, but finding vegan dishes is much harder. I have no kids, just cats, Kumquat, Cranberry, and more recently Quincy and Kiwi. They are purebreds, of the breed alley caticus (okay, American shorthair I guess). Our cats are not vegetarians, though my boyfriend (significant other, long-term partner, whatever) is. I am a friend of all animals both tamed and wild. In addition I am a freethinker and my boyfriend studies philosophy. Either way, we get along pretty well.&nbsp; Also, please allow me to say that my BF and I recently bought a condominium in NYC.:)&nbsp; Pet peeve? Okay, I don't like public scenes, especially parents yelling at their children, lovers' spats, etc. If it must be done please do it in private:D Participation &amp; Awards:</p>
 
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