To think green beans are just the most revolting vegetable

[AngeloMysterioso]

They manage to be tough, stringy and weirdly spiky all the at the same time and they have the flavour of a chewed pencil. There is literally no dish I can think of that is enhanced by their presence. They’re the unpleasant bastard cousin of sugarsnap peas and mangetout.

ETA- by green beans I mean runner beans. Just in case there’s any confusion

AIBU?

Never tried celery then? Literally the work of the devil. Like eating stagnant water with hair in it.

Nope it’s rocket. It’s like eating shitty hair. It makes me cough.

Peas. I agree with celery too (I remember DD asking for celery when she lost her sense of taste and smell due to covid. She said it was still revolting because of the texture)

Fresh picked runner beans though are lovely.

Shitty hair 😂

Fennel is texturally worse. And aniseed-y.

The most revolting vegetable is okra. All the things you hate about runner beans but with the added downfall of having snot in the middle.

Peas are the worst. My granddad used to grow runner beans and they would be very large and stringy and furry, I wasn't keen on those but supermarket ones aren't too bad usually.

I grow them because they're easy to grow and look nice growing on their canes. We eat maybe 3, then slice and freeze the other 2kg, to be thrown out at a later date...

I like nicely cooked green beans in a restaurant. Bacon bits, or flaked almonds, gives them a lift.

Courgettes are the worst. Tasteless and grey when overcooked, bitter when undercooked

Brassica. Any kind. Sulphurous, indigestible devil's food.

Not if you cook them nicely! Ours aren't stringy or spiky. I like them in most situations where a pea taste goes nicely. They are gorgeous in a lamb tagine.

Cucumber and beetroot are revolting.

They are lovely with pasta, pesto and new potatoes.

add salt, pepper and minced garlic- cook the garlic in a little oil first (or add some olive oil and the garlic to the drained beans and toss for a few minutes). Superb.

Peas are horrid.
I agree supermarket runner beans are poor, but home grown ones, picked young, are delicious.

I love green beans! You just have to not overcook them, then serve them with a little butter, pepper and maybe some lemon.

Excellent description of celery ….absolutely hate the revolting stuff🤢

The thing is most green veg is nicer when lightly steamed, crisp and not over cooked.

Green beans actually need to be boiled for quite a long time. They are horrible when they aren't cooked enough

The problem with runner beans is the lack of versatility. They are (IMO) only any good as a side to a 'meat and 2 veg' kind of dish - something meat/potato/gravy based (I would include cottage/shepherds' pie in that). They don't work in many recipes where a french bean (string bean/green bean) works - I use them all the time 'in' things - curries, in cous cous, as part of a salad etc etc as well as being a 'side'.

That said, I do love runner beans as a roast side. Mainly because they remind me of summers in the 80s, with my grandparents. We used to pick them from the garden and my grandad would happily sit on the patio prepping them (taking the outer edges off, and slicing them. They do also make the BEST chutney. A jar of runner bean chutney (ideally a couple of years old) is the Food of the Gods.

Re Okra - I couldn't agree more with the poster above. BUT... Dishoom's Okra fries are amazing. I could eat them by the bucketload.

Runner beans are my favourite veg. However I would never buy them. I grow them and pick before fully grown. Then I have a gadget that slices and cuts off the strings. Perhaps you have only tried old stringy beans

Green beans are lovely. As pp said, they need to be served with salt and pepper and a little butter melted over to bring out the flavour I find. I don’t find them at all like you have described. It sounds like you are under cooking them? If you really don’t like the fresh ones, it might be worth trying the frozen ones, they tend to have a much softer bite when cooked.

The frozen ones are nicer imo than the fresh.

TheYearOfSmallThings · Today 10:10

I love green beans! You just have to not overcook them,

You're so right!

IntheVicinity · Today 10:00

Fennel is texturally worse. And aniseed-y.

I don't like it either, any aniseed gives me crippling headaches.

Properly cooked green beans are lovely.

I can't stand beetroot or courgette 🤮

I like every kind of bean. The worst three plants are
Celery / celeriac
Coriander
Fennel