Viennese Style Green Beans

This recipe takes green beans to a whole new level. These are sweet, smoky, tangy, and salty all at the same time. This style of vegetables is always a big family hit at our house. I add this as a summer stock side dish ... when beans are in full season. This is also good made with frozen beans, so it makes an appearance at holiday meals, too.

Ingredients:

1 pound green beans
2 slices smoked bacon
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 tbs flour
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cider vinegar

salt to taste

Directions:

Bring water to boil in a large saucepan. Add green beans and cook until just tender, about 5 minutes. In a large skillet, cook bacon until just crisp. Remove bacon and drain on paper towels. Dice or crumble bacon. Drain bacon fat from pan and discard. Pour olive oil into skillet, add onion, and cook until the onion becomes soft, about 3 or 4 minutes. Reduce heat to low, stir in the flour. Stir continuously while adding the water, sugar and vinegar. Cook over low heat for about 5 minutes, until the sauce is thickened. Pour the sauce over the green beans, add the bacon, and refrigerate for up to 2 hours. Reheat the beans in the microwave until warm. Season to taste with several grinds of salt. Serve warm.

Serves 4

Stealthy Cooking Tip: A salt grinder can be a very useful tool for lowering sodium. Adding freshly ground salt right before serving allows the slightly larger salt crystals to stay on top of the dish. Overall, you add much less salt to the dish, but the larger crystals allow your tongue to still savor the salt crystals. Adding a few grinds of salt just before serving might allow you to use less salt and lower the sodium in your diet.