Purple Gaiety

I had never seen purple green beans until this summer. I'm one of those people who is always trying to get a lot of color on my plate (yay phytochemicals!) and purple is one of those colors that is hard to come by. I couldn't stop smiling when I saw them sitting there, only one pint among scores of entirely green green beans. I had to have them! As I was purchasing them, the farmer warned me that they were a slightly different flavor from green beans and that cooking them would change the color. Of course, he was right but even though I believed him at the time I still didn't expect it to happen quite like he'd said. We decided to make a stir-fry at my sister's (what used to be our) apt and she had the spectacular idea of adding dry roasted peanuts. We were short on time so we bought a pre-made peanut sauce, a spicy one. Next time I will boil/steam the purple green beans with the broccoli so they are slightly more tender, then sautee everything together. As we sauteed everything, the purple started dissapearing and even though I was sad to see my purple go, it was hard to care because it was kind of blowing my mind. Food colors are beautiful and amazing. I recommend eating stir-fry with as many colors as you can and adding dry roasted peanuts if you use a peanut sauce. With roygbiv, nuts and friends, we were well fed.