While my favourite and default way to have green beans is simmered gently with fresh tomatoes and onion, or in a Niçoise salad, sometimes it’s good to reach into the recipe books. This dish by Anna Jones from ‘One Pot, Pan, Planet’ is totally worth a trip to a Chinese supermarket to get some Sichuan peppercorns and authentic black bean sauce. If buying the sauce from a regular supermarket, choose the brand which looks the darkest and most packed with black beans, and avoid the brown sludgy stuff (says Anna Jones).