Lemon Butter Garlic Green Beans

What is Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner without atleast one recipe with green beans?

About the recipe

Sautéed green beans recipe is one of my favorites as it is ready in less than 10 minutes and hardly needs 5 minutes to actual work. Yes. You read it right. For this sautéed green beans recipe, you have to wash and trim the ends of green beans. Blanch it in hot water for 6 mins, toss it in the garlic butter and lemon juice, and serve. It is a perfect side for any meat dish, and I also like to serve it as a side with rice/roti and dal (lentil). Also, I have shared 10+ variations of green beans. Make sure to check out the options below! Choose any variation based on your liking.

Ingredients

1 pound Fresh green beans (approx. 500 grams)2 tablespoon Butter6 to 8 Garlic cloves, finely chopped1 tablespoon Spring onions or Green onionsJuice of 1 lemon¼ teaspoon Salt

How to make Easy Lemon Butter Garlic Sautéed Green Beans Recipe

Cut the green beans

Nicely wash the green beans. Grab a few at a time and trim off both ends. Now you can leave it as it is or cut the beans further into halves or thirds if you like it smaller in length.

Blanch Green Beans

In a pot on medium-high heat, add enough water (1.5 to 2 liters) and bring it to a boil. Add the green beans and cook until tender for 6 minutes. Transfer it to a colander to drain any excess water. Keep this aside.

Make Garlic butter

Melt butter in a pan. Add garlic cloves to it and saute until light golden in color. Add spring onions to it and mix. Switch off the flame.

Toss

In a bowl, add blanched green beans, a pinch of salt, lemon juice, and garlic butter, and toss until combined. Serve and enjoy.

Pro Tips

I blanch green beans for 6 minutes and drain. This keeps it crisp and tender. If you are looking for softer green beans, then cook them a little longer, say 8 minutes. You can see in the picture that the butter became semi-solid as soon as I mixed it with green beans. The room temperature was also freezing. In this case, you can microwave for 10 seconds.

Variations

To make it vegan, use olive oil instead of butter.If you like it spicy, add green chilies, jalapenos, pepper flakes, or pepper powder.Make onion and garlic green beans by adding onion along with garlic cloves.Love cheese? Drizzle a little bit of freshly grated parmesan at the end.If you like pesto or sun-dried tomatoes, simply add a tablespoon of pesto or finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes and toss it along with the blanched green beans.Make browned butter lemon garlic green beans by adding brown butter (ghee) instead of regular butter.Add boiled potatoes to make sauteed potato and green beans.Love bacon? Either add some crispy bacon bits and toss OR first cook chopped bacon on a medium flame until the fat melts and the bacon bits turn crispy. Set aside the bacon bits. Add chopped garlic and saute it in bacon fat. Add back the crispy bacon when tossing blanched green beans.Fan of nuts? You can even add toasted almonds, peanuts, pecans, or walnuts.You can use turkey or any vegetable stock to blanch green beans.