Chinese Long Beans – How long? REALLY long…

See…

I had been eying these for a while before finally broke down and bought some… and boy do I wish I hadn’t waited! Chinese Long Beans, according to Wikipedia, are also known as yardlong beans, long-podded cowpea, asparagus bean, snake bean, dau gok in Cantonese, jiang dou (豇豆) in Standard Mandarin, thua fak yao (ถั่วฝักยาว) in Thai and kacang panjang in Indonesian and Malay, sitaw in Tagalog, bora in the West Indies and vali or eeril in Goa, India.

They are a good source of protein, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, iron, phosphorus, and potassium, and a very good source for vitamin C, folate, magnesium, and manganese — and are often used in stir-fries or cooked salads in Asian cultures.

We tried them both raw and cooked and they are very good either way — BETTER than your standard green bean. I’m not a huge green bean fan… never have been… and I just loved these beans.

The 4-yo especially loved eating them raw and the novelty of their size. They are nuttier than green beans, but still have that sweet snap. When cooked, they have a much better flavor then any cooked beans I’ve had before. AND, to top it off — they are cheap! Only $0.98/lb at Russo’s Market.

I decided to keep things simple by slicing them up, flash frying them and then tossing them with Trader Joe’s Wasabi Sesame Drizzling Sauce (a new product that is GREAT!).

They are thin, maintain their crunch and have a great texture — even after sitting in the pan for a little while. The sesame-wasabi sauce added the perfect amount of saltiness to them and really enhanced their flavor. I am pretty certain I will never buy regular wax or green beans again.

You could easily substitute these for any recipe that calls for green beans or asparagus — with great results. I am SOLD.