Green beans (Thanksgiving side dish)

For Thanksgiving one of the side dishes for turkey that is not usually missing are green beans. Americans have the round type and prepare them with various dressings and always hot.

In this case we present the typical German bean salad, which is served cold or at room temperature.

INGREDIENTS (4 people):

•  500 grams (1.1 pounds) of green beans
•  1 red or purple onion (sweet)
•  4 tablespoons vinegar (apple or wine)
•  6 tablespoons corn or sunflower oil
•  Salt
•  Ground black pepper
•  1 pinch of sugar
•  optional: stems of savory or thyme

We clean and wash the green beans, cutting them in not very large pieces. We boil them in water with a little salt and a branch of savory or thyme, until tender (about 6-8 minutes).

This boiling legumes and vegetables with aromatic herbs is very common in  German gastronomy.  As the savory or caraway are not very common an aroma substitute may be thyme.

While the green beans are cooking, chop very fine the onion and mix it with the vinegar, oil, pepper, salt and a little sugar (a pinch).

We take the green beans from the fire, we drain them and once cold we sprinkle them with the vinaigrette.

As always, it is best to let the salad rest at least a couple of hours but in this case is not very critical, so you can consume it immediately.

If you are curious about the name of this recipe in German, it is called Grüner Bohnensalat.