Green beans have a freshness to them that goes perfectly with other fresh flavors like citrus. They also go well with intense umami flavors, too, and these ginger green beans are filled with both types of flavors for a dynamic taste. Ginger unites all the flavors in this Asian-fusion dish for a wonderful and easy-to-make side.

To be able to dress these properly we only want to blanch the green beans first, not overcook them. This gives us a bit of crunch and emphasizes the freshness of the beans.

The big star here is the tangy, gingery sauce and it’s really easy to make. All you need to do is throw the ingredients into a food processor and whizz it for a few moments until the mixture is smooth. It won’t be completely smooth because of the pieces of citrus in the mix, but it will become more consistent.

There’s tangerine and lemon in this sauce, both really great compliments to ginger. To make this as easy as possible we’re using ginger paste that comes in a tube (found with the fresh herbs in the produce section). If you want to use fresh ginger then a good rule of thumb is 1″ of ginger root for each tablespoon of ginger paste.

This healthy dish reminds me of my favorite spicy green bean dish at my local Chinese restaurant but without the chili spice. It makes a lovely, mellow side dish for just about any protein from beef to fish to tofu.

To make this gluten-free use tamari or amino acids instead of soy sauce.

This is a delicious change of pace from the usual stand-by green bean recipes and it truly couldn’t be easer to prepare.