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Corn on the cob and green beans may not be as nutritious when boiled as they are when they’re nuked or steamed. Grilling them is certainly sexier.

I don’t know if boiling will ever be my go-to method. Nonetheless, it does lend itself to multitasking, and the results are delicious.

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Makes 4 servings

Corn

When I’m having friends over for dinner, and they arrive early enough to catch me in prep, I put them to work. I asked one of my recent early-arrivers to manhandle some corn, and he suggested boiling it. I cringed, but I was just about to heat up the grill, and I was more interested in securing my dominion over meat and fire than discussing a vegetable – no, not even a vegetable … a grain. During dinner, when I bit into that corn … wow. I had forgotten how delicious boiled corn is.

Ingredients:

4 ears of fresh sweet corn, or more, to your liking Salt, for cooking and serving Butter, for serving

Directions:

Shuck the corn. Boil enough water in a large enough pot so that you can submerge the corn. Put the corn and a Tbs of salt in the boiling water and set a timer for 12 minutes. Strain. Return to the pot and cover to keep warm. Provide salt and butter for the corn at the table, and if you’ve got a set of sterling silver corn holders, why the hell not?

Beans

I don’t normally boil beans, either. But if you’re going to boil corn, you might as well toss the beans in during the last few minutes of the corn’s cooking time.

If you haven’t read my perspective on serving sizes … WTF? Do I write these posts for myself? You can check it out here. There is no uniform agreement about the size of a serving of fresh green beans. That’s coincidentally kind of OK with me, because I couldn’t care less how many green beans I eat. Nonetheless, when my fingers hit the keyboard, I suddenly feel like I’ve got to nail it down to something like 4½ oz. The “½” makes it sounds like I know what I’m talking about, don’t you think? Usually, I just grab a fistful per person from the bulk bean bin, plus an extra fistful for the house.

Ingredients:

1⅛ – 1½ lbs fresh green beans per person 1 tsp (more or less) salt, plus more for seasoning 1 Tbs butter Salt

Directions:

1. Its’ easy to find green bean prep instructions online. If you like the look of a whole bean on the plate, you don’t have to slice them down to bite-size pieces. If you’re instructed to remove the “strings that runs along the side of the bean,” you’re either reading instructions from days gone by, or from someone who hasn’t actually prepped a bean in the last 50 years, or instructions for homegrown, bona fide “string” beans. Commercial growers have bred the string out of the beans that are sold in grocery stores. 2. Five minutes will give you a bean that is cooked, but still has crunch. Add them to the pot during the last 5 minutes of the corn’s cooking time. If in doubt, taste-test one. If you’re satisfied, strain them, return them to the pot with the butter and a light sprinkling of salt, and cover the pan to keep them warm. When ready to serve, toss them in the pan a few times to coat them in the butter.

Timing

In order to coordinate the beans and corn with the rest of the meal, count on it taking fifteen minutes to get a large pot of water (a few cups more than a gallon) boiling. Add the cooking time and count backward from your anticipated dinner time. If the water comes to a boil sooner than you need it to, cover the pot and reduce heat to lowest setting; it will be easy to bring it back to a boil quickly when the time comes.

See Also:

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When corn and beans are in season, they can be so delicious that it’s worth having them unadorned. If you’re looking for more sophisticated sides, consider these:

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