If you love green beans with garlic, also try our garlic butter sugar snap peas! This recipe is part of our Best Spring Side Dishes series. But if you’ve bought heirloom green beans they likely will have strings. In this case, use a paring knife to snap the end off then pull it back to remove the string. Or you can buy bags of prepared green beans at most grocery stores to save a little time.
Ingredients for sautéed green beans
Olive oil – we use extra virgin olive oil as we like the flavor and high smoke point. You could also use something more neutral-flavored like refined olive oil, canola oil, or avocado oil. Green beans – When we’re in a hurry, we buy them washed and trimmed in bags; they’re super convenient. Otherwise, look for bright green beans that are firm and don’t have brown spots on them. Garlic – we use three cloves for lots of pungent garlic flavor. Salt – We like to use sea salt and the flavor isn’t overpowering. If you’re using table salt, you’ll want to reduce the amount and season to taste.
When making sauteéd green beans you want a super hot pan. This way they’ll end up getting blistered in a few spots. Dark blistered spots = lots of flavor! Simply heat a pan over high heat then add the green beans and some oil at the same time. Cook them for about 5 minutes, tossing the pan a few times until they’re bright green with yummy dark spots. That’s it! In 5 minutes your sauteed string beans will be ready to eat!
Can I use frozen green beans?
It’s very hard to dry frozen green beans well enough to make them safe to cook over high heat. If you want to use green beans that you have in your freezer, cook them in a skillet over medium-high and cook them from frozen for about 8-10 minutes. Frozen green beans will have a softer texture and won’t develop the tasty dark bits.
A squeeze of lemon juice Chili flakes or Sriracha for some heat A sprinkle of parmesan cheese Some crispy bacon Toasted sliced almonds A little blue cheese Add butter to the pan and the end and let it melt over the beans. Or go simple with salt and pepper
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To complete your dinner, these smoky roast potatoes or these garlic smashed sweet potatoes go really well with this green bean recipe!
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