onions are sweet and tender, drenched in that unctuous miso-butter sauce
This GREEN BEANS WITH MISO BUTTER ONIONS is side dish perfection. Onions are cooked until nearly melt-in-your-mouth in a simple but flavourful 3-ingredient braising liquid of butter, miso paste and water. To serve, the tender onions are served over green beans, under a blanket of the umami-rich, unctuous sauce.
The credit for the miso butter onions part of this recipe is owed to Ottolenghi Flavor: A Cookbook co-authored by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage, a duo that requires no introduction if you pay even a little attention to the who’s who of chefs. I fell in love with their miso butter onions recipe immediately and made it a handful of times, adapting it slightly with each go. Honestly the only room for improvement was to find a way to enjoy every last bit of the gorgeous umami-rich braising liquid because I seemed to always have quite a bit of it left behind once the onions were eaten. Hence I’ve taken to the practice of adding a little cornstarch slurry to thicken the liquid just a touch, and serving it over green beans for an altogether more fulsome dish.
This GREEN BEANS WITH MISO BUTTER ONIONS deserves of a spot on your menu whenever you’re entertaining but I can easily make a meatless meal of it alongside some sourdough toasts or over a bed of farro to soak up all the saucy goodness. So good!
Eat well + be well!
Sonia x
simple ingredients for the best veggie side dish ever
miso paste and butter whisked together
add warm water — that’s it for the sauce!
onion halves placed cut-side down, ready for the oven
after braising covered for 20 minutes, the onions are flipped over and returned to the oven
You May Also Be Interested in these other Side Dish recipes:
》Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad with Dried Cherries
》Winter Salad with Lentils, Herbs and Citrus
》poached shrimp and tomato salad
Recipe Head Note - Green Beans with Miso Butter Onions
What is miso paste?
Miso paste is staple in Japanese cuisine, made through a process of fermenting soy beans with salt, koji and often other ingredients such as rice. There is white, yellow and red miso paste. For this recipe, use white or yellow miso paste. Red miso paste will be too strong. You will find miso paste at all East Asian supermarkets and increasingly at conventional supermarkets as well. They tend to be next to the tofu in a refrigerated section close to produce.
Green Beans with Miso Butter Onions
Serves 6-8 as a side.
The miso butter onions portion of this recipe is adapted from the Miso Butter Onions recipe in the Flavor cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage.
INGREDIENTS.
1 to 1 ½ lb (450g-675g) green beans, washed and trimmed
2 lb small onions, or 9-10 small onions weighing about 100g each
7 tbsp (98g) unsalted butter, melted
7 tbsp (105g) white or yellow miso paste – note 1
3 C warm water
2 tbsp cornstarch whisked with 2 tbsp cold water
Salt for blanching green beans
METHOD.
Preheat oven to 500f.
In a 9” x 13” x 2” rectangular baking dish, add miso paste and melted butter. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in the warm water (you can also add a little of the warm water while whisking the butter and miso paste to help loosen).
Halve onions lengthwise. Trim a little off the tops and bottoms but leaving enough at the base to ensure they remain intact through cooking. Remove all layers with papery skins.
Arrange halved onions in baking dish, cut-side down in a single layer. Cover tightly with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil. Carefully turn over onions so they are cut-side up. Baste onions with liquid in the dish. Return to oven and bake uncovered a further 30-40 minutes or until onions are tender and browned at the edges, basting every 10 minutes or so to ensure edges don’t burn.
About 10 minutes before onions are ready, blanch green beans. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt like you would for pasta (i.e. briny like ocean water). Prepare an ice bath on the side. Blanch green beans around 2-4 minutes or whenever they are crisp-tender and still bright green. Don’t overcook as they’ll be returned to the oven to reheat. Drain in colander and immediately transfer into ice bath to stop the cooking. Drain well in a colander and place in an oven-safe shallow serving dish. Toss with a little oil.
When onions are ready, remove from the oven and turn heat down to 350f. Place the green beans in the oven to heat back through. Keep an eye on them to prevent over cooking. Alternatively, you can microwave or sauté the green beans on a skillet to reheat them.
At this point, decide whether the onion sauce consistency needs to be adjusted. For me, the sauce at this point is more of a watery liquid and I definitely prefer a slightly thicker sauce – something like a thin gravy. To thicken the sauce, use slotted spoon to carefully transfer onions into a small dish, being careful not to break them. Pour braising liquid into a small pot and bring to a gentle simmer. Whisk in a little of the cornstarch slurry (not all at once) and cook until sauce has thickened as desired. Allow it to cook on low heat to thicken. Add more cornstarch slurry and cook further only if needed.
To serve, remove green beans from the oven, arrange braised onions on top and pour sauce over everything. Enjoy!
🎥 watch Green Beans with Miso Butter Onions video:
Did you make this recipe? Leave a comment below to let me know or tag me on Instagram @saltnpepperhere so I can see. Or drop a note if you have any questions. I’m happy to help!