Green Beans with Tomatoes and Bacon

If you had told me a week ago that I would cook a batch of fresh green beans for an entire hour and not only would they not be overcooked, but they would be perfectly cooked, I would have given you a quizzical look that said, “really?”

But here we are, and I couldn’t be more pleased to share this recipe with you from my friend Ree Drummond’s new cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays. Fresh green beans are slowly cooked with bacon, onions, and tomatoes, until just done, which takes about an hour, more or less. Ree says this is one of her family’s favorite Thanksgiving recipes and I can see why! They’re absolutely delicious, and super easy to make.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Ree, she’s the wonderful woman behind the popular blog and Food Network show, The Pioneer Woman. Ree has several best selling books, including cookbooks, a memoir, and children’s books. Her latest book, A Year of Holidays, starts off with New Year’s Day with recipes for black-eyed peas, and traverses the entire year of holidays, including recipes for Valentines, Easter, Mother’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve, all with vibrant, beautiful photos. It’s a perfect book for special occasion meal planning throughout the year. Way to go Ree!

Green Beans with Tomatoes and Bacon Recipe

Ree's original recipe does not include the garlic or thyme. We added them because, why not? Tastes good. Also we halved the recipe, because for everyday meals we don't need to serve 10 to 12. Feel free to double to Ree's original Thanksgiving-worthy proportions.
This recipe also works well in the slow cooker, so I've added instructions for that as well.

Ingredients

• 4 slices thick cut bacon (about 4 ounces), cut into 1-inch segments


• 1/2 large onion, diced (about 3/4 cup)


• 1 clove garlic, minced


• 1 pounds of fresh, firm green beans (they should break when you bend them, not bend like a rubber band), stem ends trimmed


• 1 14.5-ounce can whole tomatoes


• 1 large sprig fresh thyme


• Salt


• Freshly ground black pepper


• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne

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