When you have a large crop of green beans from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include them in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use them up before they go bad without getting sick of them. You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.
Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple! Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve green beans:
- Sauté them with garlic and then drizzle with honey before serving.
- Sauté them with garlic and lemon juice. Eat as-is or add parmesan and/or pine nuts if desired.
- Sauté them with onions, garlic, and a sweet but zingy sauce like sriracha, chili sauce, a cayenne-based hot sauce, or an infused vinegar with similar characteristics.
- Make a side with chicken broth and bacon or garlic. Sauté the green beans and bacon or garlic. Add enough chicken broth to cover the mixture and simmer for 1 hour.
- Make a Simple Salad. Remember to blanch the green beans before adding them to salad, as raw green beans can be hard on the digestive system. A few ideas for Simple Salad combinations with green beans are as follows:
- Cherry tomatoes and feta
- Bell peppers, tomatoes, and feta
- Peppermint, feta, and walnuts or pecans
- Use them as a Frame in an Interesting Salad. (Wondering why I capitalized those letters? Read more about Interesting Salads here!)
- Toss them with penne, basil, and almonds.
- Add them to soup. Chop them finely and add them to soup.
- Roast them with fennel and peanuts.
- Bake them with garlic and cheddar or other cheese of choice.
- Bake them with brussels sprouts and rosemary.
- Bake them with onions, mushrooms, and goat cheese.
- Bake them with bell peppers and onions.
- NOTE: The above is a great bake by itself, and it can also be turned into a casserole by adding cream of mushroom soup, breadcrumbs, and parmesan.
- Make green bean oven fries by coating them with eggs and breadcrumbs and baking. This usually works best with 2 eggs per pound of green beans.
- Pickle them, alone or with any or all parts of the fennel plant, jalapeños, or marjoram. These combinations can work with both traditional pickling and quick-pickling.
- Freeze them to save them for later. This can be done with or without blanching, but blanching them first will allow them to retain better quality for a longer period of time. Learn more about blanching in this article.
Further Reading
Growing green beans? Check out these quick facts like its best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.
Green beans are also featured in these articles: