Cilantro

Fried Oniony, Garlicky GreenĀ Beans

September 30, 2014
4
2 Ratings
Photo by Alpha Smoot
  • Serves 2 to 4
Author Notes

This is a pretty simple recipe, but it tastes great no matter how you serve it -- hot, at room temperature, or even cold, the beans are so tasty you'll be surprised. They are really good on their own, but you can throw them into other dishes, too. They are equally wonderful mixed up into a fried rice or thrown into a pesto pasta. The timing on this will depend on how fresh and tender your beans are and whether you are using regular beans or haricots verts, which will take less time to cook. The beans should be cooked so that they're neither mushy nor too hard, but somewhere in the middle. There will be some reliance on intuition here, so the estimates on browning time are just that -- estimates. Use your eyes and taste buds before deciding when these are done. —navahfrost

Test Kitchen Notes

The Fried, Oniony, Garlicky Green Beans are the perfect holiday green to prepare in under 20 minutes! With a hint of citrus and soy sauce, this easy side is a healthy and impressive dish for everyone to enjoy. Not to mention, these green beans are versatile and can pair well with a protein or veggie main. —hellskitchenspice

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 cups regular green beans or haricots verts, chopped into 1-inch pieces
  • a few tablespoons water
  • 1 cup evenly diced onion
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 clove garlic, zested with microplane
  • 2 splashes soy sauce
  • 1 to 2 lemon wedges
  • 1/2 handful chopped cilantro, for garnish
Directions
  1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet on a medium heat, and add the beans. Let them cook for about 4 minutes (it might be significantly less depending on the type of bean you're using and the strength of your burner). The heat should be high enough that the beans are sizzling. They should be getting brown and a little wrinkled, but they should not burn.
  2. Continue to cook, adding a tablespoon or so of water and swishing it around. Push the beans all around the edges of the pan to create a space in the middle. Place the onions into the space you have created and sprinkle a little salt on top. Let the onions cook for a few minutes, then slowly start to mix everything together. At this point everything should be getting pretty brown. Add the garlic and mix it in as you stir.
  3. When the onions are nice and brown, which should take 5 to 7 minutes, add a splash or two of soy sauce and a squeeze of lemon. Cook for two more minutes and serve, garnished with chopped cilantro.

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1 Review

myrtoz November 21, 2016
This seems like a long time to cook the green beans and not enough time to cook the onions - i would hate to end up with overcooked green beans and undercooked onions.