Green Bean
33 Green Bean Recipes That Go Beyond Casserole
Don’t worry, green bean casserole came to the party too.
Green beans go by a couple of nicknames, both of which tell you a lot about the vegetable. One is string bean, which refers to the string running along the seam (less noticeable in modern varieties). The other, snap bean, predicts what happens when you bend a bean in half. Snap!
We love this vegetable for its color (especially as the weather gets drearier), quick cooking time (a few minutes in boiling water is all you need), and next-level versatility. Here are 33 of our favorite recipes starring green beans.
1. Homemade Green Bean Casserole
In this community favorite from 2010, Plum Pie makes a creamy mushroom gravy (bolstered with good stuff like white wine and vegetable broth) to blanket crisp-tender green beans.
2. Stovetop Green Bean Casserole
Another take on the classic green bean casserole: this time, all stovetop. In true Big Little Recipes style, the ingredient list here is as short as can be: green beans, cream, mushrooms, and shallots.
3. Green Bean Casserole
Okay, okay, one more variation on the green bean casserole, because you can never have too many. And anyway, this one is practically a salad with crème fraîche, sherry vinegar, and toasted hazelnuts.
4. Green Beans & Mushrooms With Tehina, Lentils & Garlic Chips
Adapted from Zahav by Michael Solomonov, this Israeli side dish hinges on creamy tehina, chewy lentils, and crispy garlic chips.
5. Grilled Pork Loin With Green Bean Salad
This green bean salad has a lot going for it: goat cheese, prosciutto, and a lemony honey dressing. Try it with a roast chicken, if you'd like.
6. Roasted Cranberry-Orange Pork Loin With Green Beans
Green beans and pork are like two peas in a pod (pun intended). The orangey cranberry sauce makes this a dreamy accompaniment for a cold fall night.
7. Steak Dinner for One With Fish Sauce–Lime Butter & Green Beans
For when you want to treat yourself to something special: juicy-charred steak dressed up with an umami-laden lime butter and blistered green beans.
8. Green Beans With Apricots & Serrano Ham
This green bean salad’s ingredient list may seem unexpected, but that’s exactly what makes it so delicious: dried apricots, green grapes, Serrano ham, and chives.
9. Green Beans Vinaigrette
Green beans and a tangy vinaigrette are hard combination to beat. If you want to skip the ice bath and serve them warm, just cut the cooking time by a couple minutes.
10. Glazed Glistening Green Beans
Consider these glazed green beans an invitation to experiment. Try: “chunks of ginger and a finish of lime zest; a few shakes of fish sauce, brown sugar, and that rosé you're drinking; or olive oil, fresh herbs, and anchovy.”
11. Lemony Green Bean Salad With Feta, Red Onion & Marjoram
Agave nectar is this salad’s secret weapon. Its not-too-sweet sweetness tames the sour lemon, salty feta, and sharp red onion—and makes us go right back for seconds.
12. Fantastic Fermented Green Beans
Fermenting green beans turns them into a bolder, brasher version of themselves. We love how the salty, funky flavor pairs next to rich dishes, like roast beef.
13. Sichuanese Dry Fried Green Beans
These garlicky, gingery, spicy green beans would be happy to live next to whatever you’re having for dinner. Or you can crumble in some ground pork or tofu and call it a meal.
14. Garlic Green Beans
“This technique looks embarrassingly simple, and it is,” writes our resident Genius Kristen Miglore. “But it shakes up our habits, and with four ingredients, lets green beans become their best selves.”
15. Sautéed Green Beans With Garlic
Remember this ratio: one pound of green beans to 3 cloves of garlic. If you dare, pick oversized ones (we dare).
16. Blistered Fiddlehead & Green Bean Salad With Sherry-Orange Vinaigrette
Bitter greens (in this case, escarole and radicchio) give this green bean salad a feisty personality. Crumbling some sharp cheese on top wouldn’t be a bad idea, either.
17. Chopped Kitchen Sink Salad With Yogurt Dressing & Bottarga
Garlic, fresh mint, and Greek yogurt team up to create a dressing that’s as appealing to green beans as it is to cucumbers and fennel.
18. Garlic Green Beans With Soy Sauce
A small splash of salty, funky soy sauce does the trick here. We’d add a big bowl of rice and call this dinner.
19. Fried Oniony Garlicky Green Beans
This dish is as much about the green beans as it is about onions and garlic—and we wouldn’t want it any other way.
20. Spring Fettuccine Alfredo With Green Beans & Tapenade
Wanna know a secret? We’d happily make this dish all year round. And if you’re hosting a vegetarian Thanksgiving, it would even make a showstopper main.
21. Tortellini With Sausage & Green Beans
Store-bought cheese tortellini to the rescue! Sausage, tomato sauce, and green beans make this a hearty one-dish dinner.
22. Pesto Pasta With Green Beans & Potatoes
The Genius here is in the ease: You cook the pasta and green beans and potatoes all in the same pot. An herby pesto brings them all together.
23. Grilled Potato & Green Bean Salad
If you don’t have an outdoor grill (or it’s too cool to use one), don’t hesitate to adapt this for a stovetop grill pan. The smoky-spicy mayo, though, is nonnegotiable.
24. Purple Potato Salad With Green Beans, Radish & Fennel
Keep a tab on this salad especially as the weather gets colder (and the food, browner). We love the mix of purple potatoes, ruby radishes, and emerald green beans.
25. Marinated Green Bean Sandwiches
Take a break from your turkey-Swiss and swap in this marinated green bean and mozzarella wunderkid.
26. French Tuna Salad Sandwich With Green Beans
A sandwich version of salad Nicoise that’s as much about the roughage (hi, artichokes, olives, and, yes, green beans) as it is about the tuna.
27. Indian Rice Pilaf With Tomato-Onion Raita & Crispy Papad
“I tried this rice pilaf and tomato-onion raita when I went over to my boyfriend's parents' house for dinner for the first time,” our assistant editor of partner content Erin Alexander writes. “Of all the food we had that evening, this dish was easily my favorite.”
28. Green Pasta Primavera
Green beans don’t have to be a side dish. All pasta primavera recipes are veggie-forward, but this one really makes the most of spring produce like fresh green beans, leeks, scallions, and garlic stalks. Fortunately, all of these greens are available year-round so you can taste this bright spot even in the dead of winter.
29. Poriyal-Style Green Beans With Peanuts & Lemon
“Poriyal is a bright and crunchy stir-fry from South India that can be made with a myriad of vegetables, though commonly green beans,” writes recipe developer Masalamama. In this recipe, the beans are first blanched and then are sautéed with black mustard seeds, fresh curry leaves, red pepper flakes, and fresh coconut for a spicy side.
30. Salmon Niçoise Salad
Fresh green beans are a staple in a nicoise salad, the traditional salad that hails from the French seaside. Here, they’re served alongside juicy cherry tomatoes, lentils, baby potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and crispy grilled salmon.
31. Angry Bean Salad From Jamie Oliver
The beans might be angry, but eaters sure won’t be when they taste this incredible green bean salad recipe. A combo of wax and green beans are blistered in a flaming hot skillet with cherry tomatoes, garlic, and fiery red chiles. To serve, top the veggies with mini mozzarella balls (known as bocconcini) and crusty bread on the side.
32. Grilled Summer Salad With Tonnato Verde
There’s a little bit of everything in this colorful summer salad—you’ll find the best of the season’s bounty in the form of beans, corn on the cob, and juicy tomatoes. But wait...there’s something fishy here. A tuna and anchovy dressing, that’s what!
33. Crispy Sesame Shrimp & Green Beans With Soy-Ginger Sauce
We know we should be talking about the savory roasted green beans in this recipe but really, how good do these crispy fried shrimp look too? Altogether, it’s the perfect weeknight dinner for a group of four.
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Written by: Emma Laperruque
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3 Comments
This recipe is particularly good for beans that are on the mature side. Simply de-string the beans prior to adding to the recipe. It is good with any type of green or wax bean, including the purple beans that turn green when exposed to cooking.
See what other Food52 readers are saying.