Green Beans
Green beans, also called string beans or snap beans, are tender, mild pod vegetables eaten whole raw, blanched, sautéed, or long-braised depending on the tradition.
How to buy
Choose beans that are bright green, firm, and snap crisply when bent; avoid any that are limp, bulging with overly mature seeds, or blemished.
How to store
Store unwashed in a perforated bag in the fridge crisper for up to a week. Blanched and frozen, they keep well for many months.
Culinary profile
- Flavor
- Mild, fresh, and slightly grassy raw or lightly cooked; long braising, as in Southern-style or Mediterranean stewed beans, turns them soft and savory, soaking up whatever they're cooked with.
- Texture
- Crisp and snappy when raw or quickly cooked; slow braising breaks them down to a soft, tender texture quite different from the crisp-tender style common in French and Chinese cooking.
- Aroma
- A fresh, green, grassy smell typical of a raw legume pod.
How to prepare
- Trimmed whole — Ends snapped off, cooked whole or left long for salads and sides.
- Blanched — Briefly boiled and shocked in ice water for crisp-tender texture and bright color.
- Sautéed or stir-fried — Quickly cooked with garlic or other aromatics over high heat.
- Braised — Slow-cooked until soft, common in Southern and Mediterranean styles.
Classic dishes
American
- Green bean casserole — Green beans baked in a creamy mushroom sauce and topped with crispy fried onions.
- Southern-style green beans with bacon — Beans simmered low and slow with bacon or ham until tender and smoky.
- Sautéed green beans with garlic — A steakhouse-style side of quickly sautéed beans finished with garlic butter.
- Succotash — Green beans sometimes join corn and lima beans in this classic sauté.
Chinese
- Dry-fried green beans — A Sichuan preparation where beans are fried until blistered, then stir-fried with ground pork and chile.
- Green bean stir-fry with pork — Sliced green beans stir-fried with ground or sliced pork and soy sauce.
Japanese
- Tempura green beans — Whole beans dipped in a light batter and fried crisp.
Indian
- Green bean curry — Green beans simmered in a spiced, often coconut-based curry sauce.
- Poriyal — A South Indian dry sauté of chopped green beans with mustard seeds and coconut.
French
- Haricots verts amandine — Thin French green beans sautéed in butter and topped with toasted almonds.
- Green bean and potato salad — Blanched beans tossed with potato and a mustard vinaigrette, a classic bistro side.
Thai
- Thai green bean stir-fry with chile and basil — Beans stir-fried fast with garlic, chile, and holy basil.
Greek
- Fasolakia — Green beans stewed slowly in tomato sauce with olive oil until soft.
- Gigantes-style stewed beans — A tomato-braised bean preparation whose technique is often applied to green beans as well.
Caribbean
- Caribbean stewed green beans with coconut — Beans braised in coconut milk with allspice and scotch bonnet.
Substitutions
- Snap Peas — A crunchier, sweeter stand-in in stir-fries, though it cooks faster than green beans.