Sautéed Green Beans

You can serve sautéed green beans as a side dish on most occasions, from Thanksgiving and Christmas to summer night dinners.

But the best thing about this recipe is that it’s so easy to make that you can have them any time you want to for a healthy and delicious weeknight dinner.

All you need are fresh or frozen green beans, olive oil, salt, pepper, and a large skillet.

To make them to perfection, we recommend blanching them for 5 minutes first; however, we’ll also show you how to cook them directly in a skillet without blanching them.

You can serve sautéed green beans right out of the pan, as they are.

Or you can sauté them with other veggies – we love them with bell peppers – or season them with a delicious honey mustard dressing, an Asian-inspired soy and ginger dressing, and Dukkah, a crunchy Middle-Easter nut-spice mix – see variations chapter below.

Find the complete recipe with measurements at the bottom of the page.

You can use fresh green beans or frozen green beans. They both turn out delicious!

We don’t recommend canned green beans as they don’t keep their crisp texture and turn out way too soft when you sauté them.

Olive oil

We recommend using extra virgin olive oil as it’s more stable at high temperatures than most oils thanks to its high polyphenols content.

Substitute regular olive oil, avocado oil, canola oil, or sunflower oil for extra virgin olive oil; however, remember that the flavor won’t be the same.

Garlic

We like to use plenty of fresh garlic in this recipe, ideally finely chopped with a knife.

If your knife skills are a little rusty, you can grate the garlic instead, although we find that in this recipe, grated garlic tends to clump up together and gets less spread out in the dish.

Salt and pepper

We use sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

1. Trim and blanch

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. In the meantime, trim your green beans.

The quickest way to do so is to take a bunch of green beans, arrange them on a cutting board, align their tips, and cut them off.

Note: skip this step if you use frozen green beans or if your fresh ones are already trimmed.

Next, peel the garlic cloves, cut them in half lengthwise, and finely chop them with a knife.

Alternatively, you can grate the garlic or crush it with a garlic press; although crushed or grated garlic tends to clump up and won’t get distributed as evenly.

When the water boils, add 1 teaspoon salt and green beans, and blanch (boil) them for 5 minutes.

Drain them and rinse them under cold running water. There’s no need to plunge them into an ice bath. However, you are free to do so if you want to.

2. Sauté with garlic

Warm up the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet or enameled cast iron skillet.

Add the garlic and fry it gently for one minute, stirring it often.

Add the blanched green beans, season with salt and black pepper, and cook them on medium to high heat for 3 to 5 minutes or until you reach your desired texture.

Move the bean around the pan often, turning them upside down. Then, if you are comfortable with it, you can sauté them, that is, jump them on the edge of the pan with a swift forward-backward movement.

3. Serve

Taste and adjust for salt and serve them on a platter as a delicious side dish.

You can add a squeeze of lemon juice, some fresh mint leaves, or a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

You can also drizzle them with a creamy honey mustard dressing for a more flavorful side dish.

No-Blanching Sautéed Green Beans

To sauté green beans without blanching them, add them to a large skillet with 1 cup of water. Cook uncovered on medium heat for about 5 to 10 minutes, or until the pan gets dry, and the beans turn to a bright green color.

Now add the olive oil, minced garlic, salt, and black pepper; turn the heat to medium-high and cook the beans for 3 to 5 more minutes, moving them around the pan until you reach your desired texture.

Middle-Eastern-Inspired Sautéed Green Beans

Have you ever heard of Dukkah? It’s a Middle-Eastern and North African condiment consisting of toasted nuts, dried herbs, and spices.

We think it’s terrific sprinkled on sautéed green beans, optionally with some grated lemon zest, because it adds an irresistible crunch and a pleasant aroma from the crushed spices (mostly cumin and coriander seeds)

Check out our dukkah recipe.

Asian-Inspired Sautéed Green Beans

You’ll love this recipe if you are into Asian flavors. For this variation, we took inspiration from our travels in Southeast Asia, where garlic, ginger, and chilies are stir-fried with veggies and soy sauce.

To make it, warm up the olive oil in the skillet, then add 2 cloves of grated garlic, 1 inch or 2.5 cm of grated ginger, and 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes.

Fry them gently for one minute, then add the blanched green beans, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, a pinch of salt, and a teaspoon of sesame oil. Cook them for 3 to 5 minutes or until you reach your desired texture.

Optionally, sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Sautéed Green Beans with Bell Pepper

Green beans and bell peppers are delicious together. Add the blanched green beans and sliced red bell peppers to a large skillet with the olive oil and minced garlic.

Cook them on medium-high heat for 3 to 5 minutes, moving them around the pan often.

Try sautéed green beans as a side dish with one of our delicious mains:

• Lentil wellington with mushroom gravy (lentils, walnut, button mushrooms, carrot, soy sauce, puff pastry).
• Lentil curry (red lentils, crushed tomatoes, coconut milk, ginger, curry, cumin).
• Spaghetti aglio e olio (spaghetti, garlic, red pepper flakes, fresh parsley).
• Pasta e Fagioli (kidney beans, ditalini pasta, crushed tomatoes, sage, bay leaves, rosemary).
• Cauliflower pasta (spaghetti, cauliflower, lemon, garlic, parsley, pine nuts).
• Chickpea stew (chickpea, sweet potato, diced tomato, garlic, cumin, turmeric).

Serve them with other vegetable side dishes for Thanksgiving, Sunday dinners, or special dinners:

• Mashed potatoes or mashed sweet potatoes (potato, chives, milk, butter, dairy-free parmesan).
• Mushroom gravy (mushrooms, garlic, butter, flour, broth, soy sauce).
• Roasted carrots (carrot, cumin, maple syrup, parsley).
• Shaved Brussels Sprouts salad (Brussels Sprouts, walnut, maple syrup, lemon).
• Fennel and orange salad (fennel, orange, pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, lemon).
• Avocado salad (avocado, red onion, cherry tomato, parsley, lemon).

Make Ahead & Storage

Make ahead: our advice is to trim and blanch the green beans up to 24 hours in advance, then cool them down under running water and store them in an airtight container in the fridge. Then, all you are left to do is sauté them shortly before serving them.

Refrigerator: keep leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Freezer: we don’t recommend freezing sautéed green beans because they’ll lose texture and become soft. However, you can blanch the green beans, cool them down, and freeze them for up to 6 months.

Reheat: Reheat in the microwave or on a skillet with some olive oil.

Get extra bright and green inspiration from these easy and wholesome green bean recipes:

• Green bean salad (green beans, cherry tomatoes, mustard, maple syrup, shallots).
• Air fryer green beans (green beans, olive oil, fresh parsley).
• Vegetable soup (white beans, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, green beans, vegetable broth).
• Vegan potato salad (potatoes, parsley, hazelnuts, green beans, scallions).

Try these easy and quick vegetable side dishes; they add extra color and flavor to your mains:

• Sautéed mushrooms (mushrooms, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper).
• Easy sautéed eggplant (eggplant, diced tomatoes, basil).
• 10-minute sautéed zucchini (zucchini, red onion, salt, pepper)
• Sautéed kale (curly kale, garlic, olive oil).
• Lemon-sautéed asparagus (asparagus, lemon, slivered almonds).

For many more side dish ideas, check out our sides category page.