Sauteed Green Beans with Garlic
Sauteed Green Beans with Garlic are quick and easy to make and super delicious. The fresh green beans (string beans!) are pan-fried until blistered in a few spots then tossed with a little garlic. Yum!
This green bean recipe is so easy to make that it almost doesn't deserve to taste so good. It's our go-to sauteed green beans recipe because it's super fast to make (10 minutes!) and they go with nearly every dinner I make. I know you'll love them, too!
Why these sauteed green beans are about to become your favorite
- The super short (4-ingredient!!) list keeps the focus on the tender green beans.
- Cooking the green beans over high heat on your stovetop gives them extra flavor. I'm looking at you, deliciously dark blistered spots.
- It's also the fastest way to cook green beans. Only 5 minutes of prep and 5 minutes of cooking and your new favorite side dish will be ready to eat.
- Sauteed green beans are the most versatile side dish. Pick a protein, make these beans, and you'll have dinner. I love them with my Perfect Baked Chicken Breasts or Juicy Baked Pork Chops.
- Green beans are super healthy. They're high in fiber, low in calories, and are full of nutrition.
- Sauteeing them with a little olive oil keeps this recipe dairy-free, low-carb, gluten-free, paleo, Whole30 and all those other healthy things.
How to prepare green beans
Fresh green beans (also called string beans) are easy to prepare. Most green beans are now stringless, which means that all you have to do to prepare them is cut off the tip.
But if you've bought heirloom green beans they likely will have strings. In this case, use a paring knife to snap the end off then pull it back to remove the string.
Or you can buy bags of prepared green beans at most grocery stores to save you a little time.
How to cook fresh green beans
Fresh green beans can be steamed, roasted, or sauteed. I like sauteeing (or pan frying) green beans as I find when steaming and roasting it's easy to overcook them.
When making sauteed green beans you want a super hot pan. This way they'll end up getting blistered in few spots. Dark blistered spots = lots of flavor!
Simply heat a pan over high heat then add the green beans and some oil at the same time. Cook them for about 5 minutes, tossing the pan a few times. That's it! In 5 minutes your sauteed string beans will be ready to eat!
What can I season green beans with?
These garlic green beans are delicious just as the recipe is written. 99% of the time I don't change the recipe at all. But sometimes I switch things up. Once the green beans are cooked, you can toss them with:
- A squeeze of lemon juice
- Chili flakes or Sriracha for some heat
- A sprinkle of parmesan cheese
- Some crispy bacon
- Toasted sliced almonds
- A little blue cheese
What to serve with this sauteed green beans recipe
These green beans are so versatile that they go well with nearly everything. Some of my favorites are:
- Honey Garlic Chicken
- Julia Child's Coq au Vin
- Juicy Baked Pork Chops
- Perfect Baked Chicken Breasts
- Roasted Parmesan Crusted Chicken
- Italian Braised Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives
To complete your dinner, these Smoky Roast Potatoes or these Herb and Garlic Smashed Sweet Potatoes go really well with this green bean recipe!
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Favorite Green Bean Recipes
- Bacon Boursin Green Beans
- Green Beans and Mint Salad with Tahini Maple Dressing
- Green Beans with Garlic Scapes Aioli
- Long Green Beans with Sriracha and Anchovies
- Oven Baked Ribs with Potatoes and Green Beans
- Healthy Vegan Green Bean Casserole
Sauteed Green Beans with Garlic
If you love this recipe as much as we do, let us know with a 5-star rating!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb green beans, trimmed
- 3 cloves garlic, very finely minced
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Heat a large pan over high heat. When it's hot, add the oil and green beans. Cook the green beans, tossing occasionally, until soft and starting to blister and turn black in a few spots, about 5 minutes.1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 lb green beans
- Add the garlic to the pan and cook the beans for 1 minute more. Remove the pan from the heat and toss with the sea salt.3 cloves garlic, ½ teaspoon sea salt
This recipe is part of our Best Spring Side Dishes series.
Super yum! Added the garlic, Himalayan salt & red chilé flakes. I don’t really care for a lot of veggies but I’m discovering the pan fry method. Yum!
Can you use frozen, thawed and dried green beans, in place of fresh?
While I’ve never tried this recipe with frozen beans, they should work. Just make sure that they’re completely dry before adding them to the pan!
So deceptively simple, but isn’t that generally what game-changing chefs teach us: no more than 5 components? Choose the best quality featured item you can & keep your recipe ingredients in check so as to highlight its excellence! I think your secrets here are, 1) heat the pan well before adding anything to it; and 2) add minced garlic only for the last minute. I almost enjoyed the resulting crispy-crunchy garlic bits more than the beans – but altogether, this is a showstopper! Brava Kristen 👏🏽 and thank you.
To the commenter who experienced excess smoke: if you have one, turn on your oven hood before adding anything to the pan. And as a near-lifetime user of gas stoves, I’ve learned over 2.5 yrs now on a ceramic cooktop that “high” really means medium. Unless I wish to boil water in a hurry, I never turn mine past 5 (on an 0.5 incremental scale of 1-9 + H)
I tried this today and OMG. This is amazing!!!! So quick and easy
DELICIOUS!! A new quick and easy family favorite!!
Easy, tasty, and FAST! I added pepper (by accident) but the flavors were still great. In the future I could find myself jazzing it up but if needed, but definitely this will be a staple in my house from here on out.
This caused my entire house to be filled with smoke. I used the recommended ingredients and amount. Is it the type of pan that I’m using? Very very smoky in here.
I’m sorry that happened to you! My kitchen gets a bit smoky when I make this, but not overwhelmingly so.
I made this tonight, followed the recipe exactly and it was delicious! So simple and SO flavorful! I added a squeeze of fresh lemon on mine before serving. This is a keeper for sure!
Amazing! Simple and delicious. I served this with Perfect Baked Chicken. Couscous was a last minute decision. Absolutely fabulous dinner for one! Plenty of leftovers for tomorrow.
These green beans are restaurant quality! And so easy to make. Highly recommend you make them.
I’m so happy to hear that!
This recipe is so simple, but unbelievably delicious!! Everytime I order garlic green beans at a Chinese place, this is what I’m crossing my fingers and hoping they will bring out. I’m usually disappointed that they coat them in gloopy, sweet brown sauce. 🙁
Thank you so much for this recipe! You’ve made my green bean world a happy, garlicky one!!
Love it!!
It must be a “Renee” thing!! lol I always hope with fingers crossed that I will get these green beans at any Asian restaurant, but…sigh….they usually come out in a brown sauce. 🙁 Which I ALSO call gloopy! You might just be my long lost twin!
These, on the other hand, are simply AMAZING!! My go to for a while now. Because a galicky, happy green bean world is now consistently achievable!! YEA!!!
Love this dish! Do you happen to have the nutritional information for this recipe?
I just checked and the nutritional information is just below the recipe. Sometimes it takes a minute to load on the page (it can be slow) but it’d definitely there. 🙂
Love this side. Its so simple and healthy but tastes great too!
That makes me so happy to hear! Hooray!