Now that spring has arrived, it’s time for lighter food, but still with a touch of warming spice. That’s why we’re sharing this vegetarian dry fried green bean with chillies recipe today. It’s a very quick and simple recipe, and you need very few ingredients to cook it – mainly just the green beans and chillies! Although you will need to fry the green beans twice, you will only need one wok, as the oil is recycled.

The recipe comes from the spicy region of Sichuan, and if you do prefer a meaty version, you can add a little minced pork at the second frying stage (step 4). It will go into the pan after the garlic and chillies, and you will need to wait for it to brown before adding the green beans. This makes a good side dish and takes roughly 10-15 minutes to prep and cook.

Step 1: remove the ends of the green beans, wash and dry them (very important that they are dry before frying), and cut them into sections roughly 2 inches in length.

Step 2: place a very generous amount of stir-frying oil (e.g. peanut oil) into a wok, roughly over 1 inch deep, and heat it for roughly 30 seconds. Once hot, place the green beans into the pan.

Step 3: allow the green beans to fry on high heat until they become slightly wrinkly, usually taking 3-5 minutes. Once slightly wrinkly, remove these from the oil and set aside.

Step 4: remove any excess oil, keeping roughly 2 tbsps. in the wok, then start heating again and add the chopped garlic and chillies and allow to cook for 30s.

Step 5: add the green beans, crushed stock cube and salt to taste. Optionally add a little umami paste here. Stir-fry for 1 minute until the stock cube has dissolved and serve!

What do you think? Did this warm up your spring evening?