Sautéed Green Beans
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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 it almost feels unfair that it tastes this good. It’s my go-to sautéed green beans side because it comes together in about 10 minutes and works with just about any dinner I’m making. Simple, fast, and reliably delicious — the kind of recipe I lean on again and again.
The short ingredient list keeps the focus where it should be: on tender green beans with tons of flavor. Cooking them over high heat gives you those irresistible dark, blistered spots, which add so much depth. Plus, it’s the quickest way I know to cook green beans — five minutes of prep, five minutes on the stove, and they’re ready.
These sautéed green beans are endlessly versatile. Pick a protein, make the beans, and dinner’s basically done.
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 a little time.
Serving ideas
These green beans are so versatile that they go well with nearly everything. Some of our favorites are:
To complete your dinner, these smoky roast potatoes or these garlic smashed sweet potatoes go really well with this green bean recipe!
Sauteed Green Beans with Garlic Recipe
Ingredients
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
Video
Notes
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
This is very good for me.
Hey guys! I love these green beans. Super easy. Thanks for sharing. I linked to them as a great side dish to my smoked beef tenderloin recipe. Thanks again!
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!
That makes me so happy to hear! Hooray!