Healthy Recipes Ingredient Vegetable Green Beans Quick & Easy Green Beans 5.0 (4) 3 Reviews Here's a fast, efficient way to cook green beans (and other vegetables), eliminating the fuss of bringing a large pot of water to a boil or draining the veggies. By Robin Bashinsky Robin Bashinsky Robin Bashinsky is a professional chef whose background includes stints at Birmingham fine-dining restaurants Daniel George and Hot and Hot Fish Club. EatingWell's Editorial Guidelines Updated on January 25, 2025 Reviewed by Dietitian Christa Brown, M.S., RDN, LD Reviewed by Dietitian Christa Brown, M.S., RDN, LD Christa Brown is a registered dietitian and business owner with a practice focus on diabetes management and content development for brands and fitness influencers. She is a licensed dietitian with a Master of Science in Nutrition Education and a certification in gut health by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. EatingWell's Editorial Guidelines Save Rate PRINT Share Jump to recipe Active Time: 5 mins Total Time: 5 mins Servings: 4 Nutrition Profile: Anti-Inflammatory Mediterranean Diet Sesame-Free Low-Carb Diabetes-Friendly Nut-Free Low-Fat Soy-Free Heart-Healthy Vegetarian Egg-Free Gluten-Free Jump to Nutrition Facts Quick & Easy Green Beans is an easy way to prepare a favorite vegetable. Snappy antioxidant-rich green beans become crisp-tender and then are simply seasoned. Keep reading for our expert tips, including how to make sure your green beans don't become mushy or tough. Tips from the EatingWell Test Kitchen These are the key tips we learned while developing and testing this recipe in our Test Kitchen to make sure it works, tastes great and is good for you too! If you want, you can use pre-trimmed green beans from the grocery store. It will save you a little time.You can easily avoid tough, undercooked or mushy, overcooked beans by testing them during cooking. Once they're crisp and tender, they're done and ready for the butter.There are several types of green beans, such as string beans or snap beans, haricots verts (also known as French green beans), and Romano beans (also known as Italian green beans or flat beans). These green beans are interchangeable in recipes. The same cooking method applies to any green bean, but cooking times may vary.Make a compound butter for the finished beans using favorite herbs such as rosemary, parsley, sage and thyme. It's an easy way to elevate a plain pad of butter into something special. Nutrition Notes Green beans are a low-carb vegetable and are high in fiber, plant protein and vitamin K, which promotes strong bones. The fiber in green beans will help keep things moving through your gut and feed your gut's beneficial bacteria. Diana Chistruga Cook Mode (Keep screen awake) Ingredients 12 ounces trimmed green beans ¼ cup water 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil ¼ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon black pepper Directions Place 12 ounces green beans in a large skillet; pour in ¼ cup water. Diana Chistruga Bring to a boil over high heat. As soon as water comes to a boil, cover pan and cook 3 minutes. Diana Chistruga Uncover pan, and stir in 1 tablespoon butter. Cook 1 minute or until water evaporates and beans are crisp-tender. Diana Chistruga Sprinkle beans with ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Diana Chistruga Frequently Asked Questions What is the best way to store fresh green beans? Fresh green beans should remain unwashed until you are ready to use them. Store unwashed beans in the refrigerator crisper drawer for up to 7 days. You can keep them in the packaging they came in from the grocery store or put them in a zip-top bag. (Note: The refrigerator crisper drawer makes a difference in keeping vegetables crisp, and it's where you want to store any fresh meat and fish you'll soon be preparing.) The beans are still good if they feel firm and you can snap them in two. If you're not planning to use them within a week, you can blanch and freeze them. Do I need to rinse the beans before cooking? Yes, rinse fresh beans just before you cook them (you would do this with canned beans too). Don't wash fresh beans until right before cooking, but if you do, remove as much moisture as possible before putting them in a zip-top bag. Consider adding a paper towel to the bag to absorb any remaining moisture. Do green beans have to be trimmed? Beans are better trimmed. Snip off the ends to remove the stem and the little nub on the other end. They will be consistently tender when cooked, and you won't have to worry about anything getting stuck between your teeth. Depending on how many pounds of beans you plan to cook, you can quickly trim them in one of two ways: Snip off the ends using kitchen shears, or line the beans up on a cutting board and slice through the ends all at once. Will this cooking technique work with other vegetables? Absolutely. Try this technique with cut asparagus, broccoli or cauliflower florets, thinly sliced zucchini or yellow squash, or quartered radishes. You can also try it with carrot chunks, butternut squash cubes or halved Brussels sprouts; double the cooking time and add more water if the pan dries out. Cook tender leafy greens (spinach, baby kale, Swiss chard or mustard greens) this way; use a Dutch oven or another large pot with a lid. What should I serve with Quick & Easy Green Beans? Pair these green beans with all your favorite main courses. Try them with some of ours: Cranberry-Rosemary Stuffed Pork Loin and Air-Fryer Salmon with Horseradish Rub. Cooking Light Save Rate Print Nutrition Facts (per serving) 52 Calories 3g Fat 6g Carbs 2g Protein Show Full Nutrition Label Hide Full Nutrition Label Nutrition Facts Servings Per Recipe 4 Serving Size about 1/2 cup Calories 52 % Daily Value * Total Carbohydrate 6g 2% Protein 2g 4% Total Fat 3g 4% Saturated Fat 2g 10% Cholesterol 8mg 3% Sodium 179mg 8% Calcium 33mg 3% Iron 1mg 6% Nutrition information is calculated by a registered dietitian using an ingredient database but should be considered an estimate. * Daily Values (DVs) are the recommended amounts of nutrients to consume each day. Percent Daily Value (%DV) found on nutrition labels tells you how much a serving of a particular food or recipe contributes to each of those total recommended amounts. Per the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the daily value is based on a standard 2,000 calorie diet. Depending on your calorie needs or if you have a health condition, you may need more or less of particular nutrients. (For example, it’s recommended that people following a heart-healthy diet eat less sodium on a daily basis compared to those following a standard diet.) (-) Information is not currently available for this nutrient. If you are following a special diet for medical reasons, be sure to consult with your primary care provider or a registered dietitian to better understand your personal nutrition needs. Additional reporting by Carrie Myers, M.S. Carrie Myers, M.S. Carrie Myers is a portfolio entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in the health and wellness space. As a writer and editor, Carrie has worked for both consumer and trade print and online publications. She's been quoted in several articles as a health and fitness expert. Carrie is also a certified life and wellness coach and exercise physiologist, and the founder of CarrieMichele Co., a lifestyle company that helps women create lives they love where they can be authentic. EatingWell's Editorial Guidelines and Linda Frahm Linda Frahm Linda Frahm has been a copy editor and fact checker working with food and nutrition content for the past 30-plus years for consumer print and online publications. EatingWell's Editorial Guidelines