Fire-Charred Green Beans with Cajun Dipping Sauce Recipe
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Charred beans pair with a mustard-mayonnaise dipping sauce for a fireside appetizer that couldn’t be easier.
What to buy: Any bean with an edible shell, such as romano or yellow wax beans, will substitute beautifully in this recipe.
Cajun seasoning can be found in most grocery stores, or you can make your own.
Special equipment: A grilling basket makes grilling green beans a whole lot more manageable. Read more about grilling.
Game plan: Make the dipping sauce the day before you go camping and bring it along. You might want to wash the green beans the day before too, though there’s no need to remove the stems.
This recipe can also be made indoors. Heat the broiler and place the beans on a large, rimmed baking sheet. Place under the broiler, occasionally turning the baking sheet, until the beans are blistered and charred, about 5 minutes. And, of course, you can just use regular salt and freshly ground black pepper in place of the chef’s mix listed in the ingredients.
This recipe was featured as part of our Tailgating Recipes photo gallery.
For the dipping sauce:
- 6 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning, purchased or homemade
- 1 teaspoon Chef’s Salt and Pepper Mix
For the beans:
- 1 pound whole green beans
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- Chef’s Salt and Pepper Mix
- Make the dipping sauce by placing all sauce ingredients in a small mixing bowl and stirring until well combined. Transfer to a small, airtight plastic container.
At the campsite:
- Build a hot campfire and place a grilling rack over it. Toss green beans with oil and season well with salt and pepper mix. Place beans in a large grilling basket with a handle and set the basket on the grilling rack.
- Cook until beans are charred and blistered on the bottom, then flip the basket to char the other side, about 3 to 5 minutes per side depending on your fire’s heat.
- Transfer charred green beans to a platter and serve with Cajun dipping sauce.
You can also do these on the stove in a very large frying pan. I melt a little butter on high, add some olive oil, then toss in the green beans, some minced garlic, salt and pepper. You toss the beans well until they are covered in the oil mixture and the herbs, then spread the beans out in the pan so they fry and not steam and don't touch them for at least five minutes until they begin to char a bit. My husband loves them this way because they don't get soggy. Try this with haricort verts--it reduces the cooking time and the beans are delicious.
I like these a lot - I use a siracha/light mayo dipping sauce, and I am in heaven!!
My guess is that your fire was not hot enough, and simply cooked the beans from the inside-out, taking so long that most of the moisture was removed from them. (I haven't tried the recipe, but all foods will cook similarly. If the temperature is too high, the outside will crisp and brown without cooking the food through; the reverse is also true, as in the case of, I believe, your beans.)
I don't know what went wrong, but mine turned out horrible! By the time the beans were blackened a little bit, they were practically freeze-dried... And I don't know if it was my cajun mix or what, but I ended up using a bunch more than a teaspoon to get enough flavor in the sauce
Worked really well under the broiler. Added some chopped red onions to the mix before broiling and everything was perfectly cooked, not dried out.
This was so tasty! Works on a grill too.