Ginger green beans with zucchini

Fresh ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil and seeds transform these humble veggies into a mouthwatering delight. Serve them with rice, quinoa or noodles to accompany beef, pork or poultry. I used a combination of green and purple beans (purple beans turn green when cooked) and the pale green Lebanese zucchini for this recipe. If you don't have this variety of zucchini, any of the others would work as well. Visually, the light green Lebanese zucchini looks great but Golden zucchini would work nicely, too. If those aren't available, any of the other varieties can be substituted. Most of these are of the green skinned types, either solid green or striped. For the beans, you can substitute yellow beans for the green or purple. I do like to stick with Heirloom or Open Pollinated varieties of vegetables as they are awesome and non GMO. Taste wise, each variety is subtly different but all are enjoyable. This recipe isn't set in stone but is easy to substitute one type of bush bean for another and the same with the zucchini.

This recipe also works wonderfully using an Oriental variety of eggplant for some or all of the zucchini.

Have fun, experiment and enjoy!