oval white porcelain bowl with short slices of reddish brown  beans, with coiled red long beans and a bunch of of long red beans stretched out straight and extending diagonally across the bottom, leaving the frame on both ends, on a mottled blue surface

Bean (Long) Recipes

Updated on Mar 19, 2019

Long Bean Paht Peht

This is a classic vegetarian Thai red curry based inspired from a recipe presented in Nancie McDermott’s 1997 Real Vegetarian Thai cookbook. This dish is perfect for mid- to late-summer when you can pick most of these ingredients straight from your garden. As always, you will be very pleased if you choose to make your own red curry paste, and recommend that you check out not only Real Vegetarian Thai but also McDermott’s earlier Real Thai for vegan and typical versions. You want to make sure that you use long beans, and not green beans, as they have a slightly wilder flavor and remain crunchy over longer cooking times. Also, make sure to use Thai basil – Genovese just won’t do. And do look for rice flake noodles in your local Asian grocery as these work much better in the dish than long, narrow noodles of ‘normal’ shape. This is not to be pad thai, after all.

7 oz dry rice flake noodles
1 pound long beans, stemmed and cut into 2” lengths
¼ cup vegetable oil
½ cup Thai red curry paste
2 Asian eggplants, quartered and cut into ¾” sections
½ cup stock
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound firm tofu, cut into ½“ thick triangles
1 red bell pepper, cut into 2” long strips
1 cup tightly packed Thai basil leaves

Blanch the rice flakes in boiling water until they have just softened. Drain and refresh in cold water. Keep the noodles submerged so that they do not stick together.

Blanch the prepared long beans in boiling water for 1 minute until they have turned bright green. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain again.

In a large pan or wok heat the oil. Add in the curry paste and story fry until it is incorporated into the oil and becomes fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Add in the blanched beans, eggplant, stock, soy sauce, sugar, and salt. Cook covered for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in the tofu and bell pepper strips, toss gently, and cook for another 2 minutes. Toss in the rice flake noodles and basil, and cook a remaining 2 minutes until the noodles are soft and the basil leaves have wilted.

Remove from heat and serve with rice.

About the Authors:

This post is a compilation of recipes from "Jeff and Linda's Kitchen of Diversity," a series of blog posts that have appeared on Baker Creek's website over the years, as well as on their own blog.  

Jeff Nekola is a botanist and ecologist with an interest in exploring the ecological context of cuisines from around the planet. Linda Fey, a long-time market gardener and outreach educator, shares his love of cooking and desire to teach people how to cook and explore the world through food. 

While the recipes presented here are not all strictly vegan, they offer meticulously tested vegetarian recipes that highlight the glory of fresh garden produce and will give you delicious ideas about what to do with your own garden's bounty.