A couple of simple dish dishes – Green Beans with Coconut and Persimmon Carpaccio. Serve together for a light lunch or add a protein.
After all of the massive amounts of food and sweets around the holidays and a week of business travel, I need to get back to my lighter and healthier way of eating. Here’s a healthy light lunch that I threw together with some green beans and a persimmon that I had leftover in the fridge. Both of these recipes – the green beans and the persimmon carpaccio reinforce the fact that keeping it simple can yield some of the tastiest results.
Green Beans with Coconut
Green Beans are best when kept simple. This little side is an excellent example.
“*” See Kitchen Notes for more information or links to special ingredients.
- ½ pound young green beans
- ¼ tsp. salt
- water for blanching
- 1 tsp. white sesame seeds
- 1 tsp. black sesame seeds
- 1 Tbsp. unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1 ½ tsp. unrefined peanut oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Blanch the beans to desired tenderness in salted boiling water about 6 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process if you aren’t going to use immediately.
- While the beans are cooking, toast the sesame seeds in a heavy skillet, shaking frequently for even browning. When the seeds start to turn add the coconut. Continue to cook until coconut just starts to turn brown. Remove from heat and transfer to a saucer to keep the coconut from overcooking.
Add peanut oil to the skillet. When hot, add the beans and reheat.
- Top with seeds and coconut, and salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
Serve as a side for a variety of dishes. Obviously, I like them with the persimmon carpaccio, but they are also good with Soy-Ginger Chicken and Grilled Flank Steak.
Beans – Small, young green beans are my favorite for thsi dish, but more mature beans work just fine. I usually buy enough green beans for 2 to 3 meals, blanch them all at one time, then use what I need. Having cooked beans in the fridge allows me to prepare them 2 to 3 different ways during the week.
Unrefined Peanut Oil – There’s peanut oil and then there’s peanut oil. My absolute favorite is Spectrum’s Unrefined Peanut Oil. It has so much flavor that you really don’t need to use much. I use it extensively for stir-fries, sautes, and Asian salad dressings.
After the first time I made this green bean recipe, I kept returning to it, making it again and again. Now, it has become one of my tried and true green bean recipes during green bean season. It comes together quite quickly and goes with many different types of entrees. Unfortunately, this recipe works best with fresh green beans and never canned or frozen. Personally, I find frozen green beans rather offensive – tough in texture and tasteless. Canned green beans I’ll use in a soup or casserole but never as a stand alone dish.
Persimmon Carpaccio
I so loved the simplicity of thinly slicing a persimmon and topping with a little seasoning. So simple and tasty.
“*” See Kitchen Notes for more information or links to special ingredients.
- 2 Fuyu persimmons peeled and sliced thin
- 1 clementine orange or other orange citrus
- A few really thin slices of sweet onion
- Poppy seeds
- Sea salt
- Place the slices of persimmon on a plate.
- Squeeze the juice from ½ of a clementine orange over the slices of persimmon.
- Place the onion slices on the permission.
- Sprinkle with poppy seeds and a little sea salt. Serve.
The Fuyu persimmons I used for the carpaccio were actually quite firm, but very sweet. The firmness made them easy to cut. Once a persimmon softens, I usually just peel it and eat it like a peach.
Here are some other persimmon and green bean recipes you will enjoy:
Persimmon Carpaccio with a Wasabi Dressing from The Culinary Tribune
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MJ, lovely colour combo in this dish. I don’t think I’ve ever used persimmons. Thanks for linking up. Cheers
Wonderful idea! I really love persimmon, and we get a ton of them growing around here. Pinned so that I can make it come persimmon season!
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Beautiful dish! I’ll have to look for some persimmons at the market.
I have three persimmons sitting on my table and would love to try this persimmon carpaccio! yum!
They both look fantastic! I keep meaning to pick up some persimmons, now I will 🙂 Love carpaccio style fruits and veggies, did some mushrooms up the other day 🙂
I love persimmons but there are not very many recipes for them other than just to eat them out of hand.
This looks wonderful and your photography is just stunning. Thanks for visiting my blog.
My mom always says persimmons have great carotene and I should be eating this. As a kid I hated it… taste was for an adult (I thought so) and the texture didn’t seem like “fruit”. Now I wish I take that back and enjoy as much as I could. I love persimmons. However, I’ve never eaten them like this. So interesting! I need to try it. I don’t have them at home right now, but can’t wait to eat it. I’m on healthy diet side, so this works perfect for my plan!
I’ve never had a persimmon before but I’ll definitely have to give one a shot. So creative of you to throw together coconut and green beans, I never would have thought!
i had never had persimmons before a few weeks ago. Now I love them. This looks great!!
That looks very appetizing, MJ! We’re not so into persimmons here, but we love green beans, and I just love how you used sesame seeds and coconut flakes to make it more fun to eat! 🙂
Your pictures are gorgeous! Love!
a nice way to prepare persimmons!
Wow, that’s a gorgeous, simple dinner. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen persimmons look quite that pretty, and the colors–fabulous!
I never know what to do with persimmons. But your persimmon carpaccio is brilliant. Thanks for this.
Beautiful, Simple, & Delicious!
I just love this!! Bookmarking for both recipes 🙂 It’s the end of persimmon season here so I need to enjoy them before they’re gone!
What a wonderful and original combination! I love the idea of having persimmon the savoury way.
Lovely presentation and what a lovely pairing of food!
Fantastic clicks, you’d combined those fruit and nuts into healthier and delicious meal!
Oh I miss the flavour of persimmon… it’s so difficult to find around here…
MJ – this is absolutely stunning! Not only are the colors gorgeous, I LOVE that you paired the persimmons with just a hint of onion….BRAVO!
Gorgeous, gorgeous clicks MJ! Your recipe sounds delicious too!
I have never had persimmons and have been wondering what the texture is of the inside. Now I know thanks to your blog post. This does look like a good recipe to start with since I have never eaten nor prepared them. Your green beans I would be glad to eat anytime-yum!
Tina, you need to try persimmons. You’d love them! Also, being the wonderful baker that you are, you’d be interested to know that persimmons make a fantastic sweet bread! 🙂
You made two very interesting dishes, MJ!
I don’t like persimmons so much, but this carpaccio version is intriguing!
As for the green beans, I simply love them!! 🙂
Oh…this is totally my kind of food..simple, fresh and healthy..and yes easy peasy to cook!
I love persimmons and green beans and can eat this light lunch any day! Certainly a great start to the new year! 🙂
Persimmon carpacio? That is so cool. Persimmons are in my top 3 favorite fruits. It’s a shame I can never seem to find them. I miss them so much!
Yum! So light, refreshing, and beauteeful!
What an interesting combination of flavours – looks light, fresh and delicious! Perfect for a healthy start to the new year. Thanks for sharing!
HI Mj this is beautiful. I like the addition of the coconut flakes and poppy seeds and that the serving is for two. I still haven’t eaten a persimmon yet but I am going to look for them this week at the market. BTW, I added the pecans right into the soup.
Suzi, once you taste a persimmon you’ll want to be eating them all of the time! Thanks for answering my question about your lovely soup (http://www.cookingsgood.com/?p=1751).
Hi MJ – I love the look of this dish – colourful, fresh, beautiful, and no doubt delicious. A perfect light meal (could do with a few of those myself at the moment!). I love what you did with the persimmon especially – I always think it’s one of the most beautiful fruits once it’s sliced horizontally like that… The little lines coming out from the centre… beautiful! 🙂
I totally agree.. sometimes simple is the way to go. 🙂 I have never tried persimmons so here is another fruit I need to put on my list of must tries. I love the green beans with the sesame seeds. Beautifully presented and plated as always! 🙂 Have a great week. ~ Ramona
What a beautiful dish MJ! Persimmon is full of flavour and I love how you highlight the beans and fruit with the nuts, seeds and slivered onion…. I completely agree that wonderful things are born from simplicity.