After a long, particularly mind-numbing day, I took myself on a leisurely stroll through Trader Joe's. There I stumbled upon very fancy sounding haricot vert. Basically, they're just thin green beans, but that evening they were a savior from an extremely boring day. No, no, I would not be having green beans for dinner, I was to have chic, cosmopolitan haricot vert for supper.
You, of course, don't need to use food as an escape, so feel free to use the average green bean for this recipe. But I do implore you, use real maple syrup. The kind that comes from a tree not an engineering plant in Pittsburgh.
Ingredients
1/2 pound haricot vert or regular green beans, trimmed
1/4 cup (real) maple syrup
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup roasted and salted pecans, roughly chopped
Method
Bring a pot of salted water to boil. While the water heats up, in a separate small saucepan bring 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup maple syrup to boil. Add only 1/4 cup of the pecans, lower heat and let simmer. By now, the big pot of water should be boiling. Add beans to the big pot and cook until tender, about four minutes. Drain beans and run under cold water to stop them cooking. Place in a large bowl and drizzle in maple syrup mixture. Add rest of the pecans and toss to coat. Serve warm or cold.