Sometimes it can be hard to find new ways with vegetables. Green beans, for example, usually get boiled, steamed, or chopped up and carelessly tossed into a stir-fry at the last moment, never quite reaching their true potential.

Today we’re sharing one of our favourite ways to cook green beans, which turns the humble vegetable into a star dish infused with wok hei and bursting with Sichuanese flavour. The key technique is ‘dry-frying’, where the raw beans are rapidly tossed in a hot wok until they begin to blister.

Traditionally the dish uses yard-long beans. They have a particular robustness that stands up well against the intense dry-frying. However, French beans and ordinary green beans will do the trick nicely too. We also use doubanjiang (chilli bean paste) for that Sichuanese flair, but feel free to use a dollop of any good chilli sauce. Be sure to add the Chinese mushrooms too – their fleshiness and daan (springy) mouthfeel adds a delightful extra layer of texture to the dish.

This recipe is adapted from the Dumpling Sisters Cookbook

Photo by Paul Winch-Furness