Fresh green beans are tossed with crispy bacon, sauteed mushrooms, shallots and fresh herbs. This is a wonderful, bright side for your Thanksgiving feast.
This post is a two-fer. If you are looking for a side dish for your Thanksgiving feast, then these fresh green beans will do the trick. Bacon, mushrooms, shallots and fresh herbs are tossed with lightly blanched green beans. Did I mention the bacon? Apparently, I have a thing for bacon this week. I give myself permission to indulge in a little bacon when it comes in something as fantastic as Mashed Potatoes with Bacon & Caramelized Onions.
The other focus of this post is more important than bacon. Yes, that’s what I said – more important than bacon. Focus, people.
Today is World Diabetes Day, and Carolyn of All Day I Dream About Food is leading the charge for diabetes awareness with today’s post, World Diabetes Day: Raising Awareness (also, be sure to check out her KitchenAid mixer giveaway). Carolyn was first diagnosed with gestational diabetes during her third pregnancy, and has been living with diabetes ever since then. She dedicates her blog to low-carb and diabetes-friendly recipes and information, and it a fantastic resource for anyone on the quest for a healthy lifestyle, diabetes or no diabetes.
I’m going to throw a few astounding statistics at you. At least they shocked the heck out of me!
- 25.8 million children and adults in the United States—8.3% of the population—have diabetes.
- 79 million people in the United States are prediabetic – that’s a shocking number!
- Potential complications related to diabetes include blindness, heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, kidney disease, nervous system disease and amputation.
- Healthy diet, regular physical activity, maintaining a normal body weight and avoiding tobacco use can prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes.
(Statistics from the American Diabetes Association and the World Health Organization – WHO)
This post is not meant to be didactic. However, I hope that we can all take pause in our day to consider how we can make changes in our own families, particularly in the arena of Type 2 diabetes which, according to the WHO, is largely the result of excess body weight and physical inactivity (though that’s not the case for everyone who has Type 2).
What if we cut back our soda intake a little bit each day? Maybe we could limit desserts to just a couple of days per week. What if we set aside 30 minutes just a few days each week to go for a brisk walk? All of these changes may seem small, but they can all start us on the path to healthy eating and healthy living (see My Health and Weight Loss Journey to read about the changes I made in my own life.)
It’s something to think about.
And now, let’s go back to our regularly scheduled recipe.
The recipe:
Set a large saucepan of salted water over high heat, and bring the water to a boil. Add the beans and cook until tender-crisp, about 2 minutes. Drain and immediately transfer the beans to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.
Drain the beans again and set aside.
Place the strips of bacon in a large skillet set over medium heat. Cook until the bacon is crisp. Transfer to a paper towel, then crumble the bacon and set aside.
Discard all but 1 teaspoon of the bacon fat. Add the olive oil to the bacon fat in the skillet, and turn to medium-high heat. Add the shallots and mushrooms, and cook until tender, 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the green beans and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add the parsley, thyme, sage, salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Cook for an additional minute, then add the crumbled bacon.
Serve hot or at room temperature.
Other Thanksgiving side dishes:
Cookin’ Canuck’s Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Chipotle Pecan Streusel
Cookin’ Canuck’s Creamy & Low-Fat Mashed Potatoes
Cookin’ Canuck’s Savory Bread Stuffing with Herbs & Sausage
Foodiecrush’s Pancetta & Hazelnut Green Beans
A Spicy Perspective’s Green Bean Mushroom Tart with Blue Cheese
Three Many Cooks’ Olive Oil-Mashed Potatoes with Garlic & Basil
Fresh Green Beans with Bacon, Mushrooms & Herbs
Ingredients
- 1 pound thin green beans trimmed
- 3 strips bacon
- 1 large shallot minced
- 12 ounces mushrooms thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 3 tablespoons parsley minced
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh sage
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the beans and cook until tender-crisp, about 2 minutes. Drain and immediately transfer the beans to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.
- Drain the beans again and set aside.
- Place the strips of bacon in a large skillet set over medium heat. Cook until the bacon is crisp. Transfer to a paper towel, then crumble the bacon and set aside.
- Discard all but 1 teaspoon of the bacon fat. Add the olive oil to the bacon fat in the skillet, and turn to medium-high heat. Add the shallots and mushrooms, and cook until tender, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the green beans and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add the parsley, thyme, sage, salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Cook for an additional minute, then add the bacon.
- Serve hot or at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
Disclosure: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Rachel Cooks
I’d say this beats plain ol’ green bean casserole any day! Looks amazing! Love how you emphasized “bacon” in the text of your photo. Genius. 🙂
CJ at Food Stories
Just making my way through all the sites that are participating in Carolyn’s World Diabetes Day awareness campaign & wanted to say hello & thx (I’m a type 2, btw) 🙂
Bev @ Bev Cooks
Soooooooo gorgeous. Why isn’t my face all over that?
Katrina @ In Katrina's Kitchen
Get on my table!!!
KalynsKitchen
Great post; gorgeous photos! And such a good thing to educate people about.
Toni | Boulder Locavore
What a beautiful and perfectly timed recipe Dara! I read this early, early on my phone as you and I were two of the earliest posters for the World Diabetes Day effort. I love everything about it. Also just read your weight loss journey; bravo! It’s a wonderful well rounded effort that will be inspirational to so many.
Cassie | Bake Your Day
This is such a great vegetable dish. I love green beans, they have long-been a favorite of mine!
Jackie
the green beans are GORGEOUS!
Laura (Tutti Dolci)
I love fresh green beans, what a perfect side for Thanksgiving!
Ashley - Baker by Nature
This is such an amazing veggie dish!!!
addie | culicurious
Yum, this looks great, Dara 🙂 Everyone’s gotta have a little bacon in their lives once in a while!
Kim - Liv Life
We have a very similar recipe that we’ve used for years. I’m not usually a big bacon fan, but this one I love!
diabeticFoodie
I’m not a mushroom fan, but my husband would ADORE this dish. Maybe I’ll surprise him for Thanksgiving.
Cassie Sue
My daughter is a type 1 diabetic, so I was showing her your post. I thought she would really appreciate it, I asked her what she thought and she paused and said “so when are you making those green beans?” LOL
Catherine H.
I’m visiting all the sites participating in the Diabetes awareness event to say thank you for doing this. I’ve had gestational diabetes and my sister is a Type I, so I’m happy someone like Carolyn is trying to get the word out about low-carb eating. This looks delish–I love bacon and I often serve green beans for Thanksgiving. I’ll have to try this.
Brenda @ a farmgirl's dabbles
What a beautiful dish of green beans! I wish I could get away with this for Thanksgiving, but my husband and kids have already made me pinky-swear we’ll have the traditional green bean casserole. BUT I will be making this dish soon, and know they will love this one, too!
carrian
That definitely is something to think about. I personally wish we could get rid of soda all together, but that’s so unrealistic. 😉
Brian @ A Thought For Food
We so rarely drink soda… who needs it when we have water and alcohol (seriously).
Love this recipe! Making me reconsider my pescatarianism 😉
Barbara @ Barbara Bakes
Looks like a perfect addition to the Thanksgiving table.
katie
These green beans look amazing. I love that you are bringing awareness about diabetes. Such a deadly disease that so many americans live with.
Carolyn
Dara, thank you so much again for participating in my WDD event. It means the world to me to have so many great bloggers willing to raise awareness. And now I am REALLY hungry for some of these beans!
Jessica
I love this photo Dara! So gorgeous!
Click Here
The info is amazingly fascinating.
Tess @ Tips on Healthy Living
Diabetes has many contributing factors other than weight or not eating right. Sometimes, it’s genetics that can make you more predisposed. This is also not simply an American problem– it effects people all over the world.
Anyway, this recipe looks amazing. Thanks for sharing!