German Green Beans with onion & bacon

By KitchenGnome

Ingredients

• 1 pound of fresh green beans
• 1/4 quarter of a big onion or half of a small onion, cut into very small pieces
• 4-6 slices of bacon, chopped into small pieces
• 1 – 1 1/2 cups of vegetable or chicken broth (broth should cover the bottom of your pot 1/2 inch deep)
• salt & pepper
• a little bit of flour or corn starch (2 tablespoons) mixed in 1/2 cup of water

Preparation

Step 1

Rinse off the beans and pat them dry.
Cut off the ends of the beans
and cut each bean into half or 3 pieces depending on how big the beans are.

Fry up the bacon in a heavy pan. If your bacon is very fatty fry it on medium heat so that the fat can “melt out” . If you fry really fatty bacon on high heat, it will “close in” the fat and then burn the bacon, so let it melt out first and then up the heat to get the bacon crispy or just stay with medium heat and give it more time to get the bacon crispy.

Add the chopped onions and brown them with the bacon until the onions turn a little bit glassy and yellow

After the bacon and onion are fried up (approx. 5-8 minutes on medium heat) add the beans and give them a good stir. Season with pepper and stir again.

Add the chicken (or vegetable) broth, reduce the heat to low , put on a lid and let the beans simmer for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes try if the beans are tender, if you like them softer let them simmer for 10 more minutes. Also try if you like more salt on your beans add salt if needed.

At the very end when the beans are done increase the heat to bring the liquid to a boil and whisk in a little bit of flour or corn starch mixed with water (don’t use the entire 1/2 cup, just a little bit at a time to get the consistency you like, it shouldn’t be super liquid and it shouldn’t be super thick, then it tastes too floury) to thicken the liquid.