Summer is a great season to enjoy the joys that the garden gives us in the kitchen. We are not only talking about tomatoes, zucchini, aubergines or a lot of fruits like peach or apricots, we are also talking about a vegetable like green beans.
Whatever type they are, round or flat, the truth is that green beans are at their best time of the year during the summer. However, it is possible that you give us more than once pig in a poke when buying green beans.
We no longer mean only that they can be especially dry, but also because they have too much thread. When this happens, apart from being a nuisance when eating them, we also have to wait a little longer when preparing and cleaning them.
Although there is no way to know for sure if a green bean will have strings, what we can be clear about is that the drier some green beans are, more likely to begin to increase these fibers so unpleasant to the palate.
How to know if green beans are fresh, according to Karlos Arguiñano
However, there is a reality that can be even worse when it comes to buying green beans and in which they also tend to give us a pig for a poke. For this, we will pay attention to a advice given by chef Karlos Arguiñano in his book My way to identify the freshest green beans, or pods, as they are known in the Basque Country.
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The main piece of advice that Karlos Arguiñano gave so that we let’s see if the green beans are fresh it is very basic. It would simply be a matter of bringing the ends of the green bean together to see if it bends.
Karlos Arguiñano says that the only thing to do “is bring the ends of the pod closer”. If it bends, it means it’s pods or not fresh green beans, but they have been collected for several days. On the contrary, if the green beans break when doing this gesture, it will be a sign of freshness.
However, there is a reality that must be analyzed a little further: if the green beans are extremely hard, not flexible at all, fibrous and they split with difficulty, it can also mean that they are green beans that have been harvested much longer. It is difficult for this to happen because it is a product with a lot of rotation and because it is not usual for it to reach this extreme.
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For this reason, the most common thing is that what happens to our green beans when they have been harvested for several days is that become especially soft and are just as flexible.
Images | Facebook Karlos Arguiñano / iStock
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