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Why You’ll Love My Recipe

Cooked in garlic and butter, these sauteed green beans are a quick and convenient side dish.

For more tasty green bean recipes, why not try this one for Green Beans Almondine or this one for Bacon-Wrapped Green Bean Bundles? Serve your beans alongside your favourite protein, maybe a Creamy Mushroom Beef Chuck Roast or some Baked Chicken Breast.

sauteed green beans on a plate with a slice of lemon

Karlynn’s Recipe Notes

Skill Level: This is a very easy recipe.
Total Time: These beans take about 15 minutes to make.
Variations: Add whatever seasonings you like. Try a sprinkle of fresh or dried dill, some chili powder or pepper flakes. Mix in a drizzle of Dijon mustard or a bit of honey, even a splash of your favourite hot sauce. Top the beans with some crunchy fried onions or bacon bits.
Tools Needed: For this recipe, you’ll need a large skillet, some tongs, a cutting board, and a knife.

What You’ll Need For Ingredients

Beans: This recipe calls for green beans, but you can use any similar size beans you’d like. Try yellow wax beans, rattlesnake beans, or purple ones. Maybe even use a combination of various types to get a colourful side dish.

Butter: You can use margarine or oil for this instead, but pay attention to the smoke point and cooking times to be sure nothing burns. And obviously butter always tastes best. You could even amp up the garlic taste by using garlic butter.

Garlic: You can finely dice fresh garlic or use minced garlic from a jar. If you don’t care for the taste of browned garlic, you could use garlic powder instead.

How to Make Sautéed Green Beans

This is a brief overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.

Heat water in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add beans.
Steam beans quickly, turning so that all sides get cooked, until water evaporates.
Add butter to the pan, let it melt and fry the beans until tender-crisp. Add garlic.
Saute the beans and garlic, stirring often, until beans have softened and garlic has browned.
Remove from heat and serve. Drizzle with lemon juice of desired.

Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for Making Sauteed Green Beans

Achieving the Perfect Texture: A quick steam at the beginning of sautéeing the beans yields tender, soft beans. The outside of the beans can fry up faster than the inside cooks, so that quick little steam at the start means that you get a lovely browned outside and a hot, soft inside! Alternatively, remove your green beans from the pan earlier if you like them a little firm. Soft and tender green beans tend to soak up the butter and garlic flavor better.

Trimming Tip: It is best to cook the beans whole, as the little beans inside the pod tend to fall out from the middle portions when cut and cooked. Just trim the stringy bits off the very ends of the beans.

Green beans are so easy to sauté up in a pan with some butter and garlic! Spritz with some lemon juice to finish them off and serve! #thekitchenmagpie #greenbeans #vegetables #greenbeanrecipe

Storage Instructions

These are always best when eaten as soon as they are served. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in your fridge for up to two days. Just reheat them in the microwave and enjoy. For general bean storage options, learn how to blanche and freeze them.

More Delicious Green Bean Recipes

Looking for more ideas for using green beans?

Try these Air Fryer Green Beans or Fried Green Beans.

Make a scrumptious Green Bean Casserole or change it up with an Asparagus Green Bean Casserole.

Here you go, everyone. A quick and tasty way to prepare green beans. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Happy Cooking!

Karlynn