Green Beans with Toasted Almonds and Oranges -- #Thanksgiving recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

 

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Bring up the topic of green beans on the Thanksgiving table and you might spark a lively debate! As I’ve said before, we’re not holiday traditionalists – meaning while we enjoy the traditional foods, we do like to mix them up a bit.

That made this green bean dish the perfect addition to our menu. It’s bright and pretty, and the flavors are lively. It’s a great side dish for turkey – or for the truly nontraditional, just about anything else! The recipe is easily cut in half for a smaller celebration, or a weeknight meal. 

“Supreming” the orange is a bit tricky, but after a segment or two, you’ll get the idea!

Here at the Kitchen, we are all grateful for your readership and friendship, and wish you the warmest of celebrations. 

Green Beans with Oranges and Almonds 

(Adapted from the Washington Post)

1/2 cup sliced almonds

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 pounds fresh green beans, rinsed and trimmed

1/2 teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

2 navel or blood oranges, cut into segments (supremed; see note below) 

Place the almonds in a cold, dry 12-inch, or larger, skillet set over medium heat and toast, tossing frequently, until browned in spots and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Transfer the almonds to a small bowl – remember that they will continue to brown as they cool. 

Add the oil to the skillet, increase the heat to medium-high and heat the oil until shimmering. Add the green beans, salt, pepper, garlic powder and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned in spots, 12 to 15 minutes. If you’ve got a splatter screen, use it – this step is a bit splattery and noisy! Remove from the heat, add the orange segments and toss to combine. Taste, and season with more salt, if needed.

Transfer the mixture to a serving dish, sprinkle with the toasted almonds and serve warm or at room temperature.

NOTE: To “supreme” or segment an orange, slice off the bottom and the top of the fruit. Stand the orange on a cutting board on its cut side. Use a serrated or paring knife to cut the peel and the pith away from the fruit in strips, top to bottom. Then, holding the fruit in your hand, cut the segments away from the membrane, removing remove all the membrane and pith – you’re basically skinning the segments. It’s perfectly okay if some of them break apart. 

Serves 6-8. 

To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, my publisher is bringing out stand-alone editions of readers’ favorites from Carried to the Grave and Other Stories. The second selection, after An Unholy Death, is the holiday short story “The Christmas Stranger.”

Amid the holiday rush of keeping the shelves stocked and filling orders for for the Merc, the grocery her family has run for more than a century, proprietor Erin Murphy treasures the way her tight-knit community of Jewel Bay seems to grow even closer during the Christmas season. And this year, when she slows down to do a simple favor for a mysterious stranger, he shows his thanks with a small, quiet gesture—a gift that changes lives, and so much more . . . 

Available in ebook now!  

A WOK AND A DEAD PLACE: A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, in paper, ebook, and audio)

From the cover: 

It's the Lunar New Year, and fortunes are about to change. 

 

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market, loves a good festival, especially one serving up tasty treats. So what could be more fun than a food walk in the city's Chinatown–International District, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit?

 

But when her friend Roxanne stumbles across a man's body in the Gold Rush, a long-closed residential hotel, questions leap out. Who was he? What was he doing in the dust-encrusted herbal pharmacy in the hotel's basement? Why was the pharmacy closed up—and why are the owners so reluctant to talk? 

 

With each new discovery, Pepper find herself asking new questions and facing more brick walls. 

 

Then questions arise about Roxanne and her relationship to Pepper's boyfriend Nate, away fishing in Alaska. Between her worries and her struggle to hire staff at the Spice Shop, Pepper has her hands and her heart full. Still, she can't resist the lure of the Gold Rush and its tangled history of secrets and lies stretching back nearly a century. 

 

But the killer is on her tail, driven by hidden demons and desires. As Pepper begins to expose the long-concealed truth, a bigger question emerges: Can she uncover the secrets of the Gold Rush Hotel without being pushed from the wok into the fire?

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest book is Between a Wok and a Dead Place, the 7th Spice Shop mystery.  

A past president of Sisters in Crime and national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.