Green Beans with Cherry Tomatoes

My husband has always hated green beans.  For the first 8 years of our marriage I NEVER cooked them.  But for some reason, this last summer I just needed a break from carrots and zucchini and bought some fresh ones.  I cooked them up and surprise, surprise!  He actually liked them!  So now we eat them all the time. 

I came across this recipe on the AllRecipes site.  It is now my favorite way to cook grean beans.

Green Beans with Cherry Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 ½ pounds green beans, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces

1 ½ c. water

¼ c. butter

1 T. sugar

¾ t. garlic salt

¼ t. pepper

1 ½ t. chopped fresh basil

2 c. cherry tomato halves

Directions:

Place beans and water in a large saucepan.  Cover, and bring to a boil.  Set heat to low, and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes.  Drain off water, and set aside.

Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.  Stir in sugar, garlic salt, pepper, and basil.  Add tomatoes, and cook stirring gently just until soft.  Pour the tomato mixture over the green beans and toss gently to blend. 

In my test kitchen:

Some people who reviewed this recipe said the sugar was not necessary.  So the first time I tried this I put in a ½ T.  It was very sweet.  So I would recommend a good pinch of sugar but no more than that. 

I reduced the garlic salt down to ¼ t. and added 1-2 cloves of chopped fresh garlic.  I also have a hard time finding fresh basil at the grocery store sometimes.  But Walmart has this cool tube of chopped fresh basil…in a paste form.  I used that as an alternative once and it was great!  I don’t think you will get quite the flavor you want if you use dried basil. 

I used grape tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes.  I read somewhere that they have less water in them?  Who knows.  Grape tomatoes worked well though. 

This makes a lot of sauce.  I would recommend not pouring the whole thing over the green beans.  Start with half the sauce and toss to coat and add more as needed. 

Last, I crumbled up some crisp bacon and sprinkled it over the top of the green beans just before serving.  It was a nice touch! 

~Happy Cooking!