Green and yellow beans with dill

It’s an incredibly simple dish, but sometimes you have to go back to your roots to taste the real thing. I’ve been feasting on French beans all through June and even now, in mid-July. They’re brilliant. When they first appeared I didn’t buy any, even though I’ve always adored them. I just didn’t fancy them. But once I bought my first lot and made them just as in the recipe below, I couldn’t resist them any time I went to the greengrocer’s.

Odd as it may sound, I’d never cooked or even eaten French beans with dill before. I usually had the beans on their own, simply boiled, or with breadcrumbs toasted in butter. With new potatoes, of course, and that was where the dill went. These days, though, I hardly eat potatoes, so I decided to give it a try.

It works a treat. Those beans with dill and buttery breadcrumbs really are a fantastic combination. Give it a go. It’s so ridiculously easy to make that you can’t go wrong. A lovely dish even on its own. For several days in June, that was my entire lunch.

At a glance: 

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: about 15 minutes (the beans should be tender but still springy)

Serves: two

Calories: really it’s just the butter that brings the calories, nothing to fear

Ingredients for a side dish or a delicious meal in its own right:

• 20 decagrams of yellow wax beans
• 20 decagrams of green beans
• a bunch of dill
• a tablespoon of butter
• a tablespoon of breadcrumbs
• salt

Method (so simple, but what a treat):

I trimmed the beans (just snipped off the ends, really) and washed them thoroughly. I filled a deep pot with water, salted it with about a tablespoon of salt, put the beans in and cooked them for about 15–20 minutes. As I said above, once cooked they should still be springy but not hard. When they were done I drained them in a colander. I wiped the pot I’d cooked them in with a paper towel and set it aside.

I melted a tablespoon of butter in a small frying pan and added a tablespoon of breadcrumbs. I mixed them well and heated them for about a minute.

I finely chopped the dill.

I put the beans back in the pot and scattered the dill over them. I added the buttery breadcrumbs and tossed everything gently so as not to break the beans. A lovely-smelling dish, ready to eat. Enjoy!