Dry-fried Szechuan green beans has become my go-to vegetable side for dinner parties, potlucks and family gatherings. The flavor and texture of the beans are amazing, and the dish gets even better after resting at room temperature! It is so frequently requested that I developed shortcuts to achieve the same great results, doubling or tripling the recipe as the finished beans have a way of disappearing each time my teenager walks past! 

Szechuan dry-fried green beans - meatless

One of my favorite Szechuan/Sichuan restaurant dishes is dry-fried green beans tossed with a small amount of ground pork in an aromatic, salty-sweet-sour sauce. So I was thrilled when I discovered the recipe for Virginia Yee's dry-fried Sichuan string beans in Grace Young's The Breath of a Wok. One of the key ingredients is Chinese black vinegar, from the province of Chinkiang or Zhenjiang, a dark rice-based vinegar with a slightly fruity, slightly salty aroma. 

Szechuan dry-fried green beans with ground pork

The traditional dish (干煸四季豆) is garnished with a small amount of browned, crispy ground pork, but most vegetarian versions that I found in restaurants were simply deep fried rather than dry-fried, and lacked the complexity of unami flavors and pleasing appearance of browned bits. 

Szechuan dry-fried green beans made with ground beef master meat mix

Around the same time, I was making dan dan noodles a lot, having discovered from reading Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty another fantastic Chinese condiment called ya cai 芽菜, a type of picked mustard green stem.  The best of the best is called Sumiyacai, and became the key ingredient in a highly versatile Szechuan Master Meat Mix that I developed to speed up and simplify meal preparation. 

The secret ingredient to an array of Szechuan style dishes.

I started to make this dish as frequently as I could find good looking fresh green beans. The key to dry stir-frying is to avoid putting too many green beans in the wok or pan at a time. This allows temperatures to elevate into the range for the Maillard reaction. The beans are able to dehydrate, wrinkle and develop that rich browned flavor while remaining green through this process. 

Blistering small batches of green beans in the wok

The blistered, wrinkled beans can be made in advance to this point. When added back to the hot pan, they are poised to imbibe the sweetened broth, black vinegar and sesame oil to complete the dish. 

When tossed in a hot wok, the beans will absorb the broth and flavorings, losing their wrinkles.

I then discovered that suimiyacai on its own is sufficient for a fully satisfying flavor experience with its subtle touches of brown sugar, chili and cinnamon layered on a salty-sour base. I started to use it instead of ground meat for vegetarian versions of mapo tofu and dry-fried green beans because it was a lot easier. No one in the family noticed or cared about the absence of meat, and the green beans still have a habit of disappearing off the plate while I am finishing other dishes for our meal. 

Blistered beans, sugar water (instead of broth) and vegan toppings ready to be combined.

The final evolution of this dish was to develop a method to achieve the same flavor and texture of the beans in a less laborious manner so that the recipe could be more easily scaled up. Sure I stood at the stove babysitting handfuls of green bean blistering in the wok, individually turning and removing the ones that were done for a triple recipe to be brought to a potluck. But when entertaining 10-12 people in my own home, even a double recipe would interfere with the completion of other dishes. 

As I was roasting root vegetables on sheet pans prior to Thanksgiving, I had the idea of blistering the beans in a hot 400°F oven. So I tried that. Unfortunately, it took 25-30 minutes before the beans began to brown. While the flavor was good, the beans were soft and olive green in color.

Last week, I was broiling Chinese barbecue pork (char siu) in preparation for a bun-wrapping party, using the recipe in Grace Young's cookbooks. I thought the heat of the broiler might do a better job at browning the beans, and gave it a try. While the wok-blistered version might still be a tad brighter in color, the hands-off cooking time allowed me to prep and cook other dishes. 

Beans after 11 minutes of broiling retained good color and crispness

Most importantly texture and flavor of the broiled green beans that were finished in the wok were comparable to the traditional cooking method. As always, these delicious, satisfying, unami-laden green beans disappeared rapidly! 

Successful shortcut vegan Szechuan-style green beans!