Sour Cream Green Beans

Just before Thanksgiving, Elise Bauer added a phenomenal-looking green bean recipe to her Simply Recipes site. When I spotted it a couple of weeks ago, I knew I had to try it. Once I looked more closely, though, I found that I had three minor problems:

1. When green beans aren’t in season, I don’t buy frozen, I buy canned;
2. I rarely buy fresh mushrooms, because they go bad so quickly; and
3. I don’t like to spend a lot of time on a side dish unless it’s for a potluck—but the idea of adding sour cream to the green beans was just too brilliant to let it wait!

So here’s a stripped-down, simplified version of Elise’s recipe. I’ve used garlic instead of onions just because I’m addicted to garlic in green beans. I made this dish on a night when I had half a can of mushrooms on hand from another recipe, but you could use a full can just as easily: do whatever your carb requirements allow. And finally, I used a large soup spoon to add sour cream until it “looked right”; I know from past measuring about how much that is. Use whatever amount of sour cream works for you.

It really is that easy!

Sour Cream Green Beans

Ingredients

• 1 pat of butter
• 1/2 tsp (1 clove) minced garlic
• 2 14.5-ounce cans of green beans, drained
• 1/2 or one 4-ounce can of mushroom stems and pieces, drained
• 2 dollops of sour cream (about 1/2 – 2/3 cup)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Sauté the garlic for several seconds—just enough to start releasing the flavor.
2. Add the green beans and mushrooms. Stir until the garlic is fairly well distributed. Heat for another minute or so.
3. Stir in the sour cream, add seasonings, and stir again. Heat mixture until warm through, but do not let the sour cream bubble. Serve warm.

Yield: 6-8 servings.

Nutritional Information:For 6 servings with a full can of mushrooms, each serving contains about 6.2 g carbohydrates, 2.2 g fiber, 4.0 g net carbs, 2.3 g protein, 6.2 g fat, and 84.3 calories.