Stuffed Long Beans is a nice looking dish that may look daunting but is actually really easy. You blanch and braid the long beans into lovely little wreaths, then stuff them with yummy stuff! I don’t know why people don’t do stuffed long beans more often. I mean, we stuff tofu, bittergourd, eggplant, so why not long beans!
I used OmniMeat in this recipe, but any minced vegan protein will do. You can also use the tofu stuffing that I used in Tofu-Stuffed Bittergourd (素酿苦瓜) instead. The softness of the stuffing contrasts very nicely with the crunch of the long beans.
For the sauce, I used Lee Kum Kee Black Bean Garlic Sauce because I really love how flavourful the sauce is. And of course, the garlic is already in there, which works for lazy people like me. If you can’t get that, you can use normal black bean sauce and add some minced garlic to it.
Ingredients
- Stuffing
- Sauce
- Cornstarch slurry
Instructions
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Cook the long beans in boiling water for about 2 minutes until malleable. Remove and cool until you can touch it with your hands.
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Make a knot.
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Continue to weave both ends of the bean around until it looks like this.
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Dust all the braids with corn starch, especially the insides of the braids. This helps the stuffing to stick.
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Add the stuffing ingredients together and mix well. Stuff the braided long beans with the stuffing, making sure that it goes through to the bottom.
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Add all the sauce ingredients together and mix well.
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Heat up 1 tbsp of oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat and sear the stuffed long beans for a minute or so.
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Pour the sauce over the stuffed long beans and cover the pan with the lid for 5-8 minutes or until beans are soft to your liking. You need to cover the pan so the stuffing will cook through.
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Remove the stuffed long beans and plate.
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Add the cornstarch slurry to the sauce and cook down over high heat until it's thickened.
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Pour the sauce over the stuffed long beans. Garnish with red bird's eye chilli and spring onions. Serve hot with plain rice.
