My grandma likes her green beans cooked until they’re very, very soft.

For years, I thought this was due to her suboptimal dental situation, but a few weeks ago I realised it was actually all about taste. My u-turn came one summer’s night on London’s Edgware Road while inhaling a bowl of loubieh bi zeit: Lebanese green beans cooked slowly with onions, tomatoes and spices until they’ve completely surrendered.

After years of cooking green beans to be crunchy and crisp, I’ve learned another valuable lesson: always listen to your elders.

Lebanese green beans and vermicelli rice

These beans are traditionally cooked in a healthy slug of olive oil – and they’re richer and more delicious for it. But if that’s too much for you, add only as much as you feel comfortable with.

The vermicelli here are often labelled as “vermicelli nests” in the pasta section at the supermarket.

Prep 20 min

Cook 1 hr 15 min

Serves 4

For the rice

250g basmati rice

2 tbsp olive oil

100g vermicelli, roughly broken into 3cm pieces

500ml vegetable stock (suitable for vegans)

½ tsp salt

For the beans

800g mix of green beans and runner beans

100ml olive oil

1 large Spanish onion, or 2 small, peeled and diced

5 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced

1kg vine tomatoes, chopped

¾ tsp cinnamon

¾ tsp black pepper

¾ tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

Coconut yoghurt, (vegan) to serve

Put the rice in a large bowl and cover with cold water. Mix with your hand until cloudy, drain and repeat until the water runs clear, then cover again and leave to one side to soak.

Prepare the runner beans: remove the strings if need be, using a vegetable peeler to shave off the sides, then top and tail both the green and runner beans and cut into 4cm pieces on an angle.

Heat the oil in a large, deep, frying pan for which you have a lid, and, when hot, add the onion. Cook for 10 minutes, or until soft enough to cut easily with a wooden spoon, then add the garlic. Cook for three minutes, thenadd the tomatoes and pop the lid on. Cook for around eight to 10 minutes, until they’ve broken down into a tomato soup, add the spices, salt and beans, mix, then cover. Cook the beans for around 40 minutes – stir now and then and add a little water if they’re getting dry (I added around 150ml) – you want them to be a bit saucy. Take off the heat and set aside to rest.

To cook the vermicelli rice, heat the oil over a medium heat in a saucepan for which you have a tight-fitting lid. When hot, add the broken vermicelli pieces and stir-fry for two minutes until a shade darker, then add the rice. Mix well to coat the grains in the oil, then add the stock and salt. Bring to a boil, put the lid on, reduce to a simmer for 12 minutes, then take off the heat and leave to rest with the lid on for another five minutes.

To serve, put a little vermicelli rice on each plate with some beans and a dollop of coconut yoghurt.

• Meera Sodha’s new book, East: 120 Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes from Bangalore to Beijing, is out now (Penguin £20). To order a copy for the special price of £15, go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846.