Oma's Cooking Green Beans - Grüne Bohnen

➤ by Oma Gerhild Fulson

Cooking green beans, German-style, makes a wonderful side dish for almost any meal. Cooking the grüne Bohnen till just tender with a creamy white sauce is so traditional and so lecker!

This one is reminiscent of the way my Mutti cooked many vegetables.

Most common were a mix of peas and carrots. Another, were these green beans. And, being green beans, the best herb to season them with is Bohnenkraut (bean herb) ... a type of summer savory.

Don't want the cream sauce? Then drizzle the cooked beans with some browned butter and sprinkle with grated cheese. Also very German.

Above, I've served the creamed green beans with boiled potatoes, pan-fried pork chops and some leftover gravy from Sunday's pork roast adding a bit more cream plus the cooking fat/juices from the pork chops to make a wonderful gravy for this meal.

From start to finish, this whole meal, including the meat, took me just 45 minutes to put onto the table. Yummy deliciousness!

How to make a really quick cream sauce:

If I'm in a super hurry, I'll use this quick trick I learned from my Mutti. Once the green beans are cooked and drained, I'll keep the green beans in the pot, and pour in some whipping or table cream. I'll perhaps even add a dollop of butter. Gently stirring over fairly high heat, the cream will start to evaporate, leaving a yummy 'sauce' coating the beans. 

Add the seasonings, especially the Bohnenkraut (summer savory), lots of freshly ground black pepper and salt. Done. Yum!

I'll use this method particularly for Brussels sprouts. So good. Toss in some bacon chips. DOUBLE YUM!

Cooking Frozen Green Beans?

The recipe below uses frozen green beans. Why? Because, as far as I'm concerned, it's the best to use. I mean, fresh from the garden would be nicer, if available, but I don't have a garden at the moment. 

And, garden fresh is only available for a short season here. That's why frozen is best because the beans keep their nutrients that way. Even buying those 'fresh beans', depending how long ago they were picked, will have varying degrees of vitamins left.

Cooking Fresh Green Beans?

If you've got some wonderful fresh green beans, hopefully right out of your garden, then all you need to do is to snip the ends off.

Pull any 'string' off the length, wash and either leave whole or cut into pieces. Use the same recipe as above, but it may take a few minutes longer for the beans to cook until just tender.

These really are the best. It's just too bad they are only available for a short time. If you have surplus in the garden, do freeze them in order to preserve their healthy benefits.

Using Canned Green Beans?

Follow the same recipe as above, starting by draining the beans in a sieve, keeping the liquid, and starting right with the sauce. 

Even though these may not be as 'healthy' as the frozen or fresh, these are readily available and easily stored. And, especially if you can get 'no-salt' or 'low-salt' canned green beans, that would be the better choice.

Ready to cook some German Green Beans?

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