This Green Beans With Lemon And Garlic recipe is a perfect side dish for your garden green beans. It only takes about 10 minutes to make.
For more ideas of what to make, check out all of our recipes.
We grow string beans in our garden during the summer months, which means I’m always looking for different ways to serve them. Oh sure, I could just sauté them and be done with it. But, if I’m trying to be a little more creative, I’ll make these lemon garlic green beans. They combine fresh garlic, green beans, lemon pepper seasoning (one of my favorites) and a squeeze of lemon juice to give you really tasty green beans.
This will be your new favorite way to make string beans.
Two quick notes. First: As this recipe is written, it’s a single serving. Of course, you can just double or triple the recipe to make multiple servings.
Second, when I can, I use garden green beans in this recipe. If you don’t have a garden, you can purchase fresh green beans at the grocery store or farmers markets. If you don’t want to use fresh, you can make this recipe with canned green beans. Just drain the can and pat them dry, then follow the recipe as is. You may need to adjust your cooking time a little bit since canned green beans are softer and need a little less time to cook than fresh green beans.
Green Beans With Lemon And Garlic Recipe
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Green Beans With Lemon And Garlic Ingredients:
You can get the full list of ingredients with measurements in the recipe card below.
- Olive oil
- Fresh green beans – Fresh is best. Canned green beans won’t hold up as well to sautéing.
- Garlic cloves – Fresh garlic that you chop yourself adds more flavor that jarred, minced garlic.
- Salt
- Lemon pepper seasoning – This seasoning comes in a shaker. We buy it at ALDI because that’s the best price, but you can find it with the other seasoning at your local grocery stores.
- Fresh lemon – You can substitute lemon juice for this.
How To Make Green Beans With Lemon And Garlic:
Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat.
Add the fresh green beans.
Cook about five minutes, making sure to flip the green beans often.
Chop the garlic cloves and add them to pan with the string beans.
Cook for about five minutes until the garlic is cooked through.
Remove the pan from the heat and add in the salt.
Add in the lemon pepper seasoning and stir.
Squeeze in fresh lemon juice from half a lemon. Stir and serve.
Quick note: Here’s a quick hack for getting the most fresh lemon juice from a lemon. Cut the lemon in half and microwave it for 10 to 15 seconds. That’ll soften the membrane. Then, use a lemon press (if you have one, a pair of tongs works if you don’t, or just your muscles) to squeeze the lemon.
If you squeeze a cold lemon, you’ll get a little lemon juice. If you use the microwave hack, you’ll get a lot of lemon juice.
Green Beans With Lemon And Garlic: Frequently Asked Questions
I always make this with garden green beans, so I just add as many ripe string beans as I have.
If you’re buying these at your local grocery store, a small handful (about a dozen) fresh string beans is a serving. That should weigh around 5 oz., if you’re weighing and not counting.
You can definitely double or triple this recipe, depending on how many servings you’re making.
Side note: When I’m shopping in store, I buy the thin French green beans, which come loose, rather than the thicker, regular green beans that come in a pre-packaged bag. But, whatever you can find in your grocery store will work for this recipe.
When I’m using green beans out of the garden, I don’t trim them. If you buy your string beans in the grocery store, they may have part of the stem attached. In that case, you’ll want to cut or snap the beans at that end to remove it. Then, just treat the trimmed green beans the same way as the fresh beans are treated in this recipe.
If you’re making sautéed green beans, the green is going to fade into a duller green. If you want to preserve that bright green color, you’ll want to blanch them first.
To do that, add a little salt to a large pot of water. When it comes to a boil, add the green beans to the boiling water for about two minutes. Then, rinse them under cold water or put them in an ice bath (basically, a large bowl of ice water) to stop the cooking process and keep the green color. Pat them dry and follow the rest of the recipe.
Wait until the leftover green beans have cooled to room temperature. Then, store them in an airtight container in the fridge for between 3 to 5 days.
The easiest way to reheat these green beans is to heat them in the microwave.
More Green Bean Recipes:
If you bought too many green beans for this recipe and you’re looking for another great side dish to use them in, try our Air Fryer Green Bean Fries (With Panko And Parmesan Cheese). Those have such a nice crunch to them and are always the best part of dinner. The first time I made them, Pete said he thought I bought them at a restaurant. They were that good.
We also have a recipe for Super Simple Sauteed String Beans (say that five times fast), which is made similarly to this recipe. So if you like this one, you’ll like that easy side dish too.
Green Beans With Lemon And Garlic
This Green Beans With Lemon And Garlic recipe is a perfect side dish for your garden green beans. It only takes about 10 minutes to make.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 serving (about 12) fresh green beans
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/8 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
- 1/2 fresh lemon
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat.
- Add the fresh green beans.
- Cook about five minutes, making sure to flip the green beans often.
- Chop the garlic cloves and add them to pan with the string beans.
- Cook for about five minutes until the garlic is cooked through.
- Remove the pan from the heat and add in the salt.
- Add in the lemon pepper seasoning and stir.
- Squeeze in fresh lemon juice from half a lemon. Stir and serve.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Yield
2Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 92Total Fat 7gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 6gCholesterol 0mgSodium 122mgCarbohydrates 8gFiber 3gSugar 3gProtein 2g
Have you made this Green Beans With Lemon And Garlic recipe? Let us know what you thought in the comments.
Amanda Evans at Odds & Evans
Saturday 16th of May 2015
I hope my green beans grow soon so I can make this!
amber.m
Friday 15th of May 2015
Oh mother of goodness, I love green beans! Yum!
Thanks for linking up with us at the best of the blogosphere! Hope to see you again on Monday!!
Brittany
Tuesday 12th of May 2015
I have a feeling my husband would love this side dish!
Cydnee/Tampa Cake Girl
Monday 11th of May 2015
String Beans are my favorite vegetables. I am going to try your recipe. ~Cydnee
Amber
Monday 11th of May 2015
I love green beans and garlic. Sounds like an easy and tasty dish!