L'Autumn Haricot Verts with Apples and Roasted Squash Seeds

If you hadn’t already seen, I had quite a difficult event occur last week. After the debacle of losing 1500 photos including that of all my upcoming recipes and restaurant reviews I had to mope for a day or two.

But as with most things in life you have to get up and keep cooking. That’s a thing right?

Well determined to do just that I made a couple of worthwhile things this Sunday making two recipes I’ve been waiting for. First was Crockpot Curry Carrot Soup which wasn’t done in time for dinner last night. At 9pm when I finally finished it I put away the freshly made soup for tonight’s dinner and I’m excited because it is awesome. I hope you’ll agree on Wednesday when I post it!

But the dinner that ended up taking the cake was much different. I had a reserve of acorn squash seeds left from my roasted acorn squash last week and I was excited to use them. Along with a honey crisp apple and some white wine I thought these ingredients would be killer with an Autumn themed sautéed green beans recipe. And I was right.

Aaron usually doesn’t like green beans but after the lovely Lisa graciously took me grocery shopping for us I picked up a pack that was really cheap ($2.45) and got cooking!

Ever since my poached salmon recipe with sautéed apples I love apples done in white wine. I thought pairing green beans, apples, and squash seeds would marry the best of Fall while dressing up what the French call, Haricot Verts (Green Beans.) After seeing a picture on Smitten Kitchen I had to try it for myself.

I hope you will too as this is nowhere near your standard green bean recipe for boring beans. Instead you get sweet and savory with a little crunch from the acorn seeds. So next time you make squash, save the seeds and make these beans!

L'Autumn Haricot Verts with Apples and Roasted Squash Seeds3-4 servings

Ingredients:

1 pound of fresh green beans, ends cut
1 small tart apple, thinly sliced with skin left ON
1 clove garlic, minced
4 oz. dry white wine
1 tbsp. butter (or olive oil for a vegan alternative)
Black pepper
garlic salt

Roasted Squash Seeds: (enough for beans and extra)
(Adapted from AllRecipes)

1 cup of winter squash seeds, cleaned and separated (I used Acorn squash but spaghetti squash or other type works just as well)
1 tbsp. olive oil
Garlic salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Make sure seeds are clean, washed and dried and all squash strings are removed. Toss seeds with olive oil and a little garlic salt until evenly coated. Lay seeds on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil spreading out so seeds lie flat.

Once oven is heated bake seeds for 10-15 minutes until golden brown and seeds slightly pop. (Will be more toasted on the bottom) Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Meanwhile lightly heat butter and garlic in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add green beans and apples to the pan lightly browning. Add some pepper and garlic salt and mix.

Once lightly browned add wine and reduce heat slightly. Let apples absorb the wine and the beans to get coated, stirring frequently as not to burn. For half the time cover the beans and apples with lid to allow them to steam. Add garlic salt to taste and take off heat once wine is absorb, apples, are tender, and beans are cooked through. (Some beans will still be bright green while others will be lighter. That’s okay!)

Serve immediately while hot, topping beans and apples with the toasted seeds and a little black pepper.

Enjoy!

Love,

The College Cuisiner