Thai Spicy Green Beans
One of my favorite cuisines is Thai. In addition to spiciness, Thai food is distinguished by an abundance of fresh local produce and fresh herbs. The Thais also have a distinctive way of mixing all of the key tastes: salty, sweet, spicy, and sour in a balanced way. One of the best things about Thai cooking in my kitchen is that a number of ordinary ingredients can be used to achieve the refreshing taste. The recipe below is actually a combination of two recipes, one for Thai spicy green beans and the other for basil ground chicken. I like serving this with sauteed garlic bok choy and brown rice, or with a thai salad on the side.
Thai Spicy Green Beans
1/2 lb. ground turkey
1 T oil
1 lb. green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t red pepper flakes (this can be quite spicy)
1 T fish sauce (or about 1 1/2 T soy sauce)
1 T brown sugar
1/4 cup water
2 T fresh basil, slivered (optional)
In a heavy bottom skillet, over medium high heat, brown the ground turkey until cooked through, drain fat if any. Add the green beans,red pepper, onion, and garlic and saute. Add all seasonings except basil and water. Cook until green beans are tender and water is fully absorbed, about 6-8 minutes. Remove from heat and stir fresh basil if using. Serve with rice.
see other recipes at $5 Dinners, Grocery Cart Challenge, and Tempt MyTummy Tuesday
Wonderful recipe. Looks great and spicy. My hubby loves spicy! Thanks for your faithfulness to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday!
Hi Lisa, my hubby loves spicy as well. Thanks for hosting. Glad Mr. Linky is back.
Looks delicious, I’ve never really cooked with fish sauce before, but I would be willing to give it a try.
Hi Brenda, If you have been to a Thai restaurant, the fish sauce is the hard to identify ingredient that adds complexity to the dishes, and makes you wonder why you can’t replicate the tastes at home without it. If you try it, use a small amount to start with as it’s very salty compared to soy sauce. Now, I’m addicted and use it in this recipe plus others like the Indonesian Spicy Rice.
Thanks for visiting.
I cook Thai food a couple time a week(I’ m thai and my husband is American) and also cook for my friends, they love thai food but I’m not use fish sauce I use soy sauce becuase the smell too strong my husband and my friends doesn’t like it so it work the same and in Thailand we use lot of soy sauce too. I prefer to buy at asian store more than grocery store (the test is not right to me) some of Thai food American people can not handle it so I have to discover Thai food that test good for American people.
I will try to cook this one for my husband(he is very picky on food)
Hi Arissara, welcome. My husband is American and has been venturing into more and more bold tastes. Among some of the best Thai-style dishes we like in addition to this are red coconut curry and Thai-style beef salad made with lemon juice, honey and clilantro. I hope to post the recipes soon. I think the brown sugar in this dish makes it work for all kinds of tastes. Thanks for commenting.
I made this for dinner last night and it was great! My husband even liked it and he is really picky. I can’t wait to read more recipes!
Hi Sara, Great! Thanks for the feedback. More Thai recipes coming soon.