Long beans used to scare me. Super long and gangly and gnarly and they can easily be overcooked, then gaining a weird texture where they become “squeaky” and almost painful to the ears to eat. Yikes. But I love them when cooked right, and though I usually use them in other recipes rather than as a standalone side dish, that might be changing. This recipe is vegetable candy.

Depending on your grocery store and quality, you can always find this at any Asian grocery store and the quality is usually much higher that what I’ve seen at the American grocery stores around here. If you don’t have long beans or prefer to, you can use fresh green beans in this recipe as a perfectly good substitute.

Cooking long beans usually requires blanching first, but I found a way around this and it doesn’t take away from the taste or crispness at all.

Rinse your beans if you haven’t already. It’s okay if they have some darker spots and imperfections, but as long beans get older, they’ll start to shrivel and it’s probably time to toss them or use them when creating a stock or bone broth instead.

My preferred method is snapping the beans rather than cutting. Snapping beans, even things like green beans or asparagus, seems to snap it in a more natural area for the plant. These are snapped at about 3 inches each.

We’re going to start with water or chicken broth in the sauté pan or nonstick wok. This is a common method of cooking in a lot of Asian cuisine. You start with a little bit of water until it cooks down and then add some oil to continue the cooking process. In regards to long beans, they can be a bit tough unless blanched first, this allows them to soften.

Once all the liquid is gone, add 2 tbsp of olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes.

Squeeze some lemon, toss, and serve.