Gardening and Cooking with Noodle Beans

The teepee of Chinese noodle beans (or yard-long beans) has really come into harvest in the last week. I am growing this unusually long and tender pole bean for the first time this season and am very pleased. After a slow start with our cool spring, the noodle beans have covered the wooden frame that Dan made for our vine crops and they are a beautiful and prolific addition to our garden.

I planted purple noodle beans, but must've gotten a few green bean seeds in the mix, because they produced first and have a slightly different colored flower. I have made a couple of lovely stir-fries with the noodle beans, hacked up into manageable lengths from their impressive size, and they remain tender and stringless even when fully grown. The purple noodle beans still remain dark purple when they are stir-fried, unlike other kinds of purple string beans that revert to green when cooked, so this is interesting.


The noodle beans have a firm and springy texture, almost like licorice whips, so they stand up to long cooking times and now I am interested in seeking out some traditional Chinese recipes for braising them. Next up will probably be this recipe for Chinese Peppered Yard-Long Beans. Now to get wokking!