Green Bean Bundles

Green Bean Bundles. Thank you Paula Deen for this recipe! And muchos gracias to my friend Leslie for telling me about these. She made these for a family holiday gathering and as she described the dish to me my mind hung on the words "wrapped in bacon..." I have no idea what she said after that phrase.

How bad could it be? And could you even screw this up? Wrap _______ (insert disgusting thing here) in bacon and I'd probably like it.

Start with beautiful fresh green beans. I can't believe how well these posed for photos. The first thing I did was snip the ugly ends off the green beans.

I gave the bacon a head start by placing them in a 350 oven on a wire bakers cooling rack so the grease could fall off and the bacon wouldn't sit in the grease. I just want to bake them for a short bit so the bacon would be a tad cooked and also easier to handle when warm.

Blanch the green beans by boiling a large pot of water and adding the fresh beans for just a few minutes.

Then remove with a slotted spoon and dunk in a bowl full of chilled water - I even added a few ice cubes to the water to stop the cooking process.

Shake the green beans dry a little and place on baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil.

Now sprinkle the seasoning. You could use ANYTHING here, I chose garlic salt and black pepper.

Toss everything together to evenly coat the green beans in the olive oil and seasoning.

The last step is to take one piece of bacon and wrap a "bundle" of about 5 beans. I placed seam side down on a wire rack set in a baking sheet.

How simple is this? They already look yummy and I haven't even put them in the oven yet.

Please don't mind my many photos of these green bean bundles...they are just so photogenic!

Here are the finished babies after roasting for 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Super easy to put together, minimal ingredients, beautiful vegetable side dish - and one that TASTE great too.