GREEN BEAN
Family:
Leguminosiae
Genus:
Phaseolus
Species:
vulgaris
Green beans
(American English), also known as French beans (British English), are the unripe fruit of any
kind of bean,
including the yardlong bean, the winged bean, and especially the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), whose pods are also usually
called string beans in the northeastern United States, but can also be
called snap beans.
Green bean varieties have been bred especially for the
fleshiness, flavor, or sweetness of their pods. Haricots verts, French
for "green beans", may refer to a longer, thinner type of green bean
than the typical American green bean.
Culinary use
green
beans (raw)
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Nutritional
value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
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129 kJ (31 kcal)
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7.1 g
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3.6 g
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0.1 g
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1.8 g
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16 mg (19%)
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1 mg (8%)
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200 mg (4%)
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Green beans are often steamed, boiled, stir-fried, or baked
in casseroles. A dish with green beans popular throughout the United States,
particularly at Thanksgiving, is green bean
casserole, which consists of green beans,
cream of mushroom soup, and French fried onions.
Some restaurants in the USA serve green beans that are battered and fried, and Japanese
restaurants in the United States frequently serve green bean tempura.
Green beans are also sold dried and fried with vegetables like carrots, corn,
and peas.
Beans contain high concentrations of lectins and may
be harmful
if consumed in excess in uncooked or improperly cooked form.
Cultivation
Bush beans are short plants, growing to approximately two
feet in height, without requiring supports. They generally reach maturity and
produce all of their fruit in a relatively short period of time, then cease to
produce. Gardeners may grow more than one crop of bush beans in a season.
Varieties
Over 130 varieties of snap bean are known.
Varieties specialized for use as green beans, selected for the succulence and
flavor of their pods, are the ones usually grown in the home vegetable garden,
and many varieties exist. Pod color can be green, golden, purple, red, or
streaked. Shapes range from thin "fillet" types to wide
"romano" types and more common types in between. French Haricots
verts (green beans) are bred for flavorful pods.
The following varieties are among the most common and widely
grown.
Bush types
- Bountiful, 50 days (green, heirloom)
- Burpee's Stringless Green Pod, 50 days (green, heirloom)
- Contender, 50 days (green)
- Topcrop, 51 days (green), 1950 AAS winner
- Rocdor (Roc d'Or), 53 days (yellow)
- Cherokee Wax, 55 days (yellow), 1948 AAS winner
- Improved Golden Wax/Pencil Pod Black Wax/Top Notch, 55 days (yellow, heirloom)
- Red Swan, 55 days (red)
- Blue Lake 274, 58 days (green)
- Maxibel, 59 days (green fillet)
- Roma II, 59 days (green romano)
- Improved Commodore/Bush Kentucky Wonder, 60 days (green), 1945 AAS winner
- Dragon's Tongue, 60 days (streaked)
Green pole beans on beanpoles.
- Meraviglia di Venezia (Marvel of Venice), 54 days (yellow romano)
- Blue Lake, 60 days (green)
- Fortex, 60 days (green fillet)
- Kentucky Blue, 63 days (green), 1991 AAS winner
- Old Homestead/Kentucky Wonder, 65 days (green, heirloom)
- Kentucky Wonder Wax, 67 days (yellow, heirloom)
- Rattlesnake, 73 days (streaked, heirloom)
- Purple King, 75 days (purple)