Hearty Green Beans With Mushrooms and Pearl Onions
My very first blog post in my new kitchen! I can’t tell you enough how wonderful it feels to have a kitchen of my very own, and made specifically how I wanted it. It’s a dream come true. The kitchen is taking much longer to complete than we expected, but in the meanwhile, I’m so happy to be cooking again and I am loving my gas cooktop. I’ll write a whole blog post with all the details about our new kitchen once it’s completed, but for now, I’ll share the new recipes that I’m creating in this beautiful space.
Besides tomatoes, green beans are probably the most popular side dish with my husband and myself. We eat green beans in many different ways. They are so delicious, especially if cooked just right, so that the green beans are tender but still vibrant green and crisp. Pearl onions are so dainty and sweet, so they are perfect in this dish. With the addition of shallots, mushrooms and garlic, this is a very scrumptious combination of ingredients. Balsamic vinegar adds just the right amount of acidity and sweetness to give the whole dish a perfect balance of flavors. I could eat this as a main course with some rice.
Ingredients:
1 lb green beans
1 1/2 – 2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 lb pearl onions, fresh or frozen, peeled (defrost if using frozen)
1-2 shallots, thinly sliced
2-3 garlic cloves
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Instructions:
Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil.
While you are waiting for the water to boil, heat the olive oil in a skillet on medium high heat and add the sliced mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5-8 minutes.
Add the pearl onions, season with more salt and pepper and cook for another 5 minutes or so, until both the mushrooms and the onions are golden. 
Add the shallots and the garlic. Cook for 3-5 minutes more. 
Add the balsamic vinegar, scraping the bottom of the skillet to get all the browned bits loosened. This will add a lot of flavor to the dish. If your skillet still has a lot of brown bits, pour in a bit of water or broth.
When the water has boiled, add the green beans and cook for about 3 minutes, just until the beans are tender but still vibrant green and crisp. 
Drain the green beans. 
Add the green beans to the skillet with the mushrooms. Mix to combine. Serve immediately. You can reheat the green beans very well in a skillet.
- 1 lb green beans
- 1½ - 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- ½ lb pearl onions, fresh or frozen, peeled (defrost if using frozen)
- 1-2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
- 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. While you are waiting for the water to boil, heat the olive oil in a skillet on medium high heat and add the sliced mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5-8 minutes. Add the pearl onions, season with more salt and pepper and cook for another 5 minutes or so, until both the mushrooms and the onions are golden. Add the shallots and the garlic. Cook for 3-5 minutes more. Add the balsamic vinegar, scraping the bottom of the skillet to get all the browned bits loosened. This will add a lot of flavor to the dish. If your skillet still has a lot of brown bits, pour in a bit of water or broth.
- When the water has boiled, add the green beans and cook for about 3 minutes, just until the beans are tender but still vibrant green and crisp. Drain the green beans. Add the green beans to the skillet with the mushrooms. Mix to combine. Serve immediately. You can reheat the green beans very well in a skillet.
10 Comments
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Natasha
Green beans are also our favorite, even kids love to eat them! Usually I just make them with mushrooms and I add shredded Parmesan cheese right before serving
olgak7
That’s awesome, Natasha.
Green beans are so versatile; there are so many different ways to prepare them.
Mom's Dish
Olga, I am completely in love with your kitchen so far. I dream of kitchen just like yours. Huge bonus is that you can just take pics right where you work! Looking forward to your post.
olgak7
Thank you so much, Natasha!
Jessica
A question that I constantly have with your blog — what is a shallot?????? And what’s a pearl onion? What do you recommend as a substitute – regular onion, leek, green onion, etc?
Here in the land of tulips and windmills, there are sweet onions, red onions, regular yellow-ish onions (don’t know their name), and tiny pickled “silver onions.”
This recipe looks yummy, though – just gotta fill in the gaps in my culinary knowledge!
olgak7
That’s a great questing, Jessica. Shallots are much more mild than onions, so I really like them for certain recipes. Pearl onions can be commonly found in the freezer section of the grocery store if they’re not available with the fresh vegetables.
If you can’t find either, just use regular onions.
Valya of valyastasteofhome.com says
I never tried making dish with green beans. I want to give it a try. I’m just curious how it tastes. Thanks Olga! Contacts on your new home!
olgak7
It’s hard to explain. Green beans are crisp and taste like green beans.I really can’t think of anything to compare them to. We really like them.
Tatyana M
This was great! Easy and delicious. A nice alternative to sautéed or roasted.
olgak7
Thank you, Tatyana:).