You will need a frying or sauté pan of 8-12 inch diameter (20-22 cm) to make this dish.

Top and tail the green beans. Wipe the mushrooms clean with a damp paper towel or damp towel. Trim the stems.

Heat the pan to medium low. Pour in olive oil and Vermouth. Add the garlic. It should sizzle, but not brown.

Add the beans and mushrooms. The pan should be large enough to easily accommodate all the vegetables. Otherwise they’ll cook unevenly.

Cook for a few minutes, moving the food around with a spatula. Add a few good squeezes of lemon juice. Salt and pepper.

Cook the dish for at least five minutes, ensuring the mushrooms are cooked through. Beyond that, it becomes a question of personal taste. If you prefer your beans snappy, stop now. If you like your veg well done, give it another five minutes.

Serve green beans and mushrooms as a side with just about any protein, or make it a main with pasta, rice, polenta, or barley.

Place leftovers in a covered container and refrigerate up to five days. Freezing is not recommended.

Notes:

I used Blue Lake green beans, which are widely available green beans in the US.

White button mushrooms are inexpensive and easily found across the United States . Cremini mushrooms are more expensive than button mushrooms, but also easily found. Feel free to substitute more exotic fungi.

The proportion of bean to mushroom is entirely up to you.

I used Vermouth, but any dry white wine will work in this dish. If you prefer cooking without alcohol, chicken, vegetable, or mushroom broth will work, as will plain water.

Feel free to add butter to the pan; I omitted it because my husband was carrying this in a packed lunch.

I used a knife to top and tail the beans, but you can go Nigella and scissor them.

Mushrooms benefit from long, slow cooking. I don’t do that here, but you can cook the mushrooms slowly in butter, olive oil, and minced garlic–essentially, making a duxelles–before adding the green beans. The resulting dish will be different, but just as delicious.