Fresh and Delicious Green Beans

We grew green beans in the garden last summer, so we had plenty of FRESH green beans to go around. They were delicious! As I was looking for different ways of preparing them, I decided to give one of those grill baskets a try.

If you have never tried one of these, run to Ace Hardware or http://www.cooking.com/ and get one! You'll be happy you did. Ours doesn't look this shiney and new anymore, because it has been used often! We use this for everything! green beans, aparagus, potatoes, onions, zucchini, etc. any vegetable you'd saute on the stove can be cooked on the grill in this thing.
So, we made our beans in this all last summer. These don't take more than 5 minutes on a pre-heated grill, so I would prepare the beans while any meat that was just cooked on the grill is quietly resting under tented foil.

1-2 pounds fresh green beans
olive oil
kosher salt
1-2 cloves of garlic minced (optional)
soy sauce

Place the grill basket on the preheated grill. Toss the washed and dried green beans with olive oil and put into the hot basket. They'll sizzle and smoke. Using your grill tongs, keep tossing them in the basket. Sprinkle with kosher salt and toss some more. Continue to cook on the grill for a couple minutes, until the beans are cooked, but still crisp; you do NOT want limp beans.
Depending how hot your grill is, this should take about 4-5 minutes.
Just before removing from the grill, generously sprinkle the beans with soy sauce and thoroughly toss. At this point, if you also want to toss in some minced garlic, do it. Be VERY careful to NOT burn the garlic if you do choose to add it. Burnt garlic = blechhhh!
Remove the basket from the grill and transfer the beans to a serving bowl. Pass them when they are hot off the grill. So delicious!

**pictures will follow, making these tonight with grilled pork chops....


NOTE: you can also make these in a large non-stick skillet, on the stove.