Brown Floured Wax Beans

Brown Floured Wax Beans
Dorcas Annette Walker

This month as we honor mothers, I decided to share a favorite recipe of my mother that she used to make frequently while I was growing up. I didn’t have any idea of how original her Brown Floured Wax Bean recipe was until I started looking around. Recipes for wax beans are scare even in cookbooks. On the internet I found recipes to make sweet and sour wax beans, fried onions and bacon with wax beans in a sauce, mustard and pickled wax beans, and wax beans made in white gravy. Especially down here in the south you don’t see wax beans served very often as few stores even carry the item. So this year I decided to plant wax beans in order to can and keep a supply of my own yellow beans on hand. I think the main reason that wax beans are not more of a southern cuisine is because wax or yellow beans tend to have a milder- what some might consider a boring- taste compared to green beans. My mother’s brown flour gravy adds a delicate flavor to the wax beans that turns yellow beans into a gourmet dish. Little did our family realize or appreciate what an awesome cook we had living in our own home. Between the influence of my mother and grandmother is there any wonder that I ended up loving to experiment with food and cook?

Wax or yellow beans, also called by some “butter beans” originated in the tropics of Central and South America and got their name due to the waxy texture and feel of their skin giving them a different flavor and texture when cooked from green beans. Wax beans vary from light to a deep yellow color, are a slender and long bean, covered with a thinner and more velvety skin. Their peak growing season is late July to September. Wax beans are canned, frozen, boiled, fried, steamed, used in soups, stews, and casseroles, and are popular cooked fresh today in stir-fries. Yellow wax beans provide a great source of vitamin C, iron, and immune boosting folate. Preparation time for my Brown Floured Wax Beans is fifteen minutes and this recipe serves two to three.

Brown Floured Wax Beans

1 tb margarine
1 heaping tb self-rising flour
1 (14.5 oz) can of wax beans
salt & pepper

In a small saucepan melt the margarine, add flour, and brown. Then pour in the juice of the beans adding salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil stirring with a Wisk until thickened. Fold in the wax beans and simmer for five minutes before serving. Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika!

Weekly tip: Cooking with salt intensifies natural flavor and brings several blended flavors into perfection!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com