Green Beans with Pine Nuts, Goat Cheese, and Cranberries

This delicious side dish prepared with green beans, toasted pine nuts, crumbled goat cheese, and dried cranberries takes only fifteen minutes in a skillet on your stovetop! How’s that for a quick and easy holiday side? Perfectly seasoned and quickly sauteed in butter, these green beans are delectably savoury!

The one thing I constantly struggle with is incorporating more vegetables into our regular every day meals. I’m not a huge fan of green beans, which is why I need to really dress them up in order to enjoy them. I’m not a savage like John.e who will oftentimes pick peas right from the bushes in my garden and eat them right then and there! Nope, that’s not me. I need lots of flavour and they have to be cooked. That’s why this Green Beans with Pine Nuts, Goat Cheese, and Cranberries was a side dish success!

In our home, we are major fans of a traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. Every year I put on a full spread – even if it’s just for the three of us. And, every year since John.e has been a member of our family, green beans has been a part of that spread. I didn’t grow up with green beans. If they were not in a can of mixed veggies or in a bag of frozen veggies, then chances were we were not eating them. My parents never ever bought fresh green beans. That is why there were not a regular item I was used to preparing until I met John.e.

Now though, we have them a few times year – I admit! – not quite often as we should! Green beans go so well with the traditional meals we’re used to eating. But, they can easily be incorporated into regular weeknight dinners.

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So, welcome, Dear Reader, to my annual holiday-themed recipes. Traditionally, every year I share a series of recipes that you might already be familiar with. For example, I’ve previously shared 12 Holiday Trifles, 12 Holiday Bars & Squares, and even these 12 Edible Holiday Wreath recipes! Also, some of my favourite recipe collections from previous years are my 75 Homemade Gifts from Your Kitchen, my 50 Make Ahead Freezer Friendly Christmas Recipes, and my 30 No-Bake Christmas Recipes post.

This year I’m doing it differently. Rather than sharing multiple back to back series, I’m sharing a new holiday-themed recipe almost every day from now until Christmas Eve. For those of you who have followed my annual Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas series, don’t worry, you will still get lots of new cookie recipes this year too. I will not, however, be publishing the cookies back to back in a 24-day series. This would have been my 8th year running the series and it becomes very exhausting, so this year, I’m spreading the recipes out so that I’m not sharing the same type of recipe every day.

You really don’t want to miss one of these recipes, so if you have not yet subscribed to Lord Byron’s Kitchen, I encourage you to do so. That way, a new recipe will be emailed to you every day. You won’t have to bother to come looking for it! And, just in case you’re curious, you can see previous annual posts for my 24 Cookies of Christmas Series here!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO PREPARE THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

• Butter – If you use salted butter, cut back on the salt you’ll add to this dish.
• Green Beans – Wash them well and trim the ends if preferred.
• Garlic – Use fresh garlic, because it makes a world of difference in this dish.
• Seasonings – Just your basic salt and pepper is needed.
• Pine Nuts – These can be pricey, so feel free to omit them. If you do use them, toast them for maximum flavour.
• Goat Cheese – If you’re unfamiliar with goat cheese, please read the section that follows below.
• Dried Cranberries

HOW TO MAKE GREEN BEANS WITH PINE NUTS, GOAT CHEESE, AND CRANBERRIES

In a skillet over medium heat, melt the butter until it begins to bubble. Add the garlic, green beans, salt, and pepper. Toss to coat in the butter. Saute for 3-5 minutes or until beans are heated through, but not limp or soft. Once the beans are cooked to your liking, turn off the heat. Add the toasted pine nuts, and dried cranberries. Toss into the beans until well distributed. Transfer cooked green beans to a platter. Crumble over the goat cheese and serve immediately.

GOAT CHEESE

Goat cheese is one of my favourite cheeses. It’s so creamy and smooth, and completely flexible in terms of food prep. Goat cheese can be sweetened, made to taste savoury, and adds so much depth to a pasta dish. It’s a great vessel for carrying a stronger flavour and it really does blend well with more dominant ingredients.

Goat cheese, or chevre, is a cheese that is made from goat’s milk. It is made in a wide variety of styles, from soft fresh cheese to hard aged cheese. You may have noticed that in comparison to cheese made with cow’s milk, goat cheese is slightly tart. That’s because cow’s milk and goat’s milk have similar overall fat contents, but goats milk is high in fatty acids. It also has a lower lactose content than cow’s milk.

Goat cheese has been made for thousands of years and dates back to Ancient Greece around 5,000 B.C. In the simplest form, goat cheese is made by allowing raw milk to naturally curdle, and then draining and pressing the curds. Other techniques use an acid (such as vinegar or lemon juice) or rennet to coagulate the milk. Soft goat cheeses are made in kitchens worldwide, with cooks hanging bundles of cheesecloth filled with curds in the warm kitchen for several days to drain and cure. If the cheese is to be aged, it is often brined so it will form a rind, and then stored in a cool cheese cave for several months to cure.

TOASTING PINE NUTS

The first thing you should do is to toast your pine nuts. How do you do that? It’s very simple! To be perfectly honest, this applies to any nuts or seeds, not just the nuts in this recipe. If you are not familiar with toasted nuts, then please try it just once. You will probably never revert to using nuts in your cooking or baking again without toasting them first!

I have tried using non-stick frying pans for toasting, but nothing works as well as a stainless steel pan. You could use a cast iron pan, but since they get very hot and retain heat so well, it’s easier to burn the nuts. See the frying pan in this picture? That’s the exact one that I use all the time. I’m not suggesting you run out and buy this same cookware set, but I want you to see the pan – remember, do not use non-stick if possible. You’ll get better results will plain stainless steel.

So, unlike most cooking where you’re required to preheat first, you don’t want to apply that same rule to toasting nuts. Add the nuts to a cold pan. Place the pan on the burner and turn the heat on – no higher than medium and probably even less if using a gas burner.

Keep the nuts moving about. I use a rubber spatula. Once you start to smell that warm and toasty aromatic smell, pay close attention. The nuts will take on a slightly golden colour. Don’t let them get too dark. Once you’re satisfied, immediately remove them from the hot pan and transfer them to a dinner plate where they can be spread out to cool.

QUESTIONS?

If I have not answered all of your questions in the text above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! You can contact me by sending me a message in the comments section further down the page. I will try my best to answer as soon as possible! You might reach me even faster by following me on Facebook and sending me a private message. Scroll down below the recipe card to find my Follow Me on Social Media box and never miss another recipe!