Sweet and Sour Bacon Green Bean Side Dish
Sweet and sour glaze is made using balsamic vinegar and brown sugar with crispy bacon; toss in the green beans and diced red pepper for a beautiful side dish that will brighten up any menu.
Equipment
- 3 quart sauce pan for blanching green beans
- deep 12 inch skillet for making sauce and sauting green beans
- colander for draining green beans after ice bath
- tongs for tossing green beans in sauce, you can use whatever works for you
- slotted spoon for removing green beans from boiling water, you can also drain in colander and then put in ice bath
- large bowl for ice water bath to cool green beans down after blanching
Ingredients
- 2 lbs fresh green beans washed and trimmed
- 4 slices thick sliced bacon diced
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup red bell pepper, cut into small cubes
- 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper more to your taste
- salt to your taste
Instructions
blanch green beans
- Fill a large bowl with cold water add some ice. Add 6 cups of water plus 2 teaspoons of salt to a 3 quart or larger sauce pan and bring to a boil. Add cleaned and trimmed green beans to the boiling water cook for 2 minutes, remove from heat. Using a slotted spoon remove beans from the boiling water and plunge them into the ice bath. Leave in water until beans are cool to the touch. Drain in a colander.
sweet and sour glaze
- In a 12" skillet over medium high heat add diced thick cut bacon, cook until crispy. Remove skillet from heat and spoon nearly all rendered fat from bacon, leaving approximately 1 tbsp of bacon grease in the pan.
- Return pan to heat add balsamic vinegar and brown sugar whisk, turn heat down to medium-low and cook until glaze thickens (consistency of pancake syrup) add drained green beans to the pan and toss around with glaze. Add in diced bell pepper. Cook for 5 minutes, sprinkle with salt and pepper to your taste.
- Remove green beans to a serving dish. If sauce has loosened up from the juices released from vegetables, turn up the heat and allow glaze/ sauce to reduce. When sauce/glaze returns to the consistency of pancake syrup turn off heat and spoon over beans making sure to scrape all the bits of bacony goodness from the pan. Sprinkle with a pinch more salt and pepper and serve.
Notes
Note: green beans can be blanched a day ahead of time, or earlier in the day to save time. This dish also warms up quite well, its not quite as perfect the next day, but if you wanted to prepare the entire side dish a day in advance and then warm in the microwave, in skillet on stove top this does work. The beans will lose a bit of the bright green color and the texture will be softer.
Tried this recipe?Mention @eat2gather or tag #eat2gather!