Sautéed garlic butter green beans are a great healthy side dish.
Preparing this string bean dish is super easy and if done the right way, also very delicious.
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🧅 Ingredients
Here is an overview of what you will need to make this.
The full recipe with detailed US and metric ingredients measurements is located further below in the recipe card.
- green beans - fresh tender looking beans. The older and larger they are, the more fiberouse they will turn out.
- butter - if you use salted butter, skip or reduce salt.
- garlic - fresh garlic only
- salt and black pepper
You may want to garnish your finished dish with freshly chopped parsley. Choose between flat-leaf parsley and curly parsley.
🔪 How to make it?
It only takes 3 steps for you to prepare these garlic butter green beans from scratch. Find the complete instructions in the recipe card to print further below.
Step 1
Rinse your green beans and cut off ends.
Step 2
Bring a pot with water and salt to boil.
Cook beans al dente (to the bite, not all too soft).
Take out when done and place into ice water to stop the cooking process.
Step 3
Chop garlic. Melt butter and sauté chopped garlic.
Stir in strained cooked green beans and season with salt and black pepper.
Mix it all and serve up hot.
💡 Tips
- green beans are also called string beans or french beans and they come in other colors such as yellow and purple-black. It's fun to use different bean colors to make this side dish.
- don't over boil the string beans or else they will get mushy. Try to use all same-sized beans. Of course, this is hard to achieve with home-grown french beans.
- you can also add boiled potatoes to this side dish and fried onions or caramelized onions.
- To retain the green color of your green beans, cook in plenty of water and don't cover the pot because this may destroy the chlorophyl (the green color) in the vegetables. Also, avoid over cooking them! Placing the cooked vegetables in ice water after cooking helps in retaining the bright green colors too. Adding a pinch of baking soda was said to help in preserving the greens but this may also destroy the vitamins and mineral nutrients in your vegetables.
🍴 Serving
In France, we prepare and serve up this side dish all year round but we do so more commonly during the summer months, when our home-grown beans are ready to be harvested.
Green beans really go well with all kinds of steaks, Salisbury steak, filet mignon, tenderloin roast, chicken roast, and other meat main course meals.
You can also serve it up with roasted turkey during the holidays and fish, such as I did with the pan-fried trout.
🍱 Storing
You can store leftovers in an airtight container in your fridge for up to 4-5 days.
Reheat it in a glass container in your oven or over the stovetop in a skillet and some more butter (so that it doesn't stick on).
I don't recommend freezing your garlic butter green beans, the whole finished dish.
Instead, you can use clean frozen green beans. Just thaw them as per package instructions and coat them with garlic and butter, as explained in the recipe card.
👁️ Green Bean Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Garlic Butter Green Beans Recipe
Ingredients
To boil beans
- 1 pound Green Beans
- Water to boil and ice water to cool after boiling
- Salt for the salt water
To sauté beans
- 2-3 pieces Garlic Cloves freshly chopped
- 2-3 Tablespoon Butter
- ½ Teaspoon Salt skip salt if you use salted butter
- ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
To garnish
- Parsley Fresh freshly chopped, optional
Instructions
- Rinse your green beans to get rid of impurities. Cut off ends of green beans.1 pound Green Beans
- Bring water with salt to boil and place green beans into the cooking water. Cook beans al dente, that means until cooked but not too soft. This take about 6-8 minutes over a medium to high heat setting.Water, Salt
- Take out cooked beans and place them into a bowl prepared with ice water. The ice water will stop the cooking process instantly.Water
- When cooled, take green beans out from the water and strain to get rid of excess water. Pat green beans dry with a clean kitchen towel.
- Chop fresh garlic and keep it aside.2-3 pieces Garlic Cloves
- Heat up a pan, add the butter. Melt the butter over a slow heat setting.2-3 Tablespoon Butter
- Stir in chopped garlic. Sauté garlic for a few minutes over a low heat setting. Stir occassionally so that the garlic doesn't get brown.2-3 pieces Garlic Cloves
- Add cooked green beans to the garlic butter and turn off the heat.1 pound Green Beans
- Season with salt and black pepper. Stir and mix everything.½ Teaspoon Salt, ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
- As an option, garnish with chopped green parsley. Serve up hot.
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