The Very Best Way to Cook Green Beans
Pesto green beans—it’s both a recipe title AND (basically) your shopping list for this ultra-easy fresh green bean recipe. The sweetness and lovely crunch of fresh green beans is highlighted and enhanced (rather than covered up) by the verdant, garlicky pesto, making this easy summer side a truly heavenly dish. When it comes to what to add to green beans, people are of many different minds. Some people love a simple topping of butter and salt, or they rely on a classic Green Bean Casserole. But when basil is fresh and green beans are abundant, this pesto green beans recipe is unbeatable.
Pesto Green Beans—Two Wonderful Things in One Dish!
Garlicky fresh pesto—homemade or store-bought—has so much flavor, it’s all you really need to make fresh, blanched green beans absolutely dazzle. Blanching lets the green beans keep their satisfying snap, and turns their already-lovely green color all the way to 11. A bit of butter (because we can) and a few extra pine nuts to finish (again, because we can) add a hint of richness that’ll really keep people coming back for more. Here’s everything you’ll need to make this fresh green bean recipe:
Green beans
Fresh pesto (here’s our pesto recipe, if you’d like to make it yourself!)
Butter
Pine nuts
What Are the Health Benefits of Green Beans?
Like all green veggies, green beans are incredibly nutritious. Low in calories and high in fiber, they’re great for making you feel full as well as generally supporting digestive health. All that soluble fiber is heart-healthy, too, as it seems that it may help to lower “bad” cholesterol. Green beans are also full of antioxidants like vitamin C and they’re a good source of folate, a B vitamin, which is especially essential for pregnant and nursing women. So basically, the list of reasons to eat green beans—aside from their irresistible sweetness and crunch—is long!
How to Cook Green Beans
Blanching is our favorite way to cook green beans, especially during green bean season (AKA summer) when they’re really peaking in the garden and at the markets. Cooking green beans in this simple way preserves all of their goodness! Blanched green beans get nice and tender, but they retain a good amount of bite and all of their earthy, vegetal sweetness. Here’s how to prep and blanch green beans to make the very best, healthy summer side dish we know of:
Prep your fresh green beans. When we say “washed and trimmed” in the recipe, we mean that you’ve given them a quick rinse (you should always rinse your produce! But you know that, right?) and you’ve snapped (or cut) off the stem-end of the green bean.
Drop the prepped green beans in salted, boiling water and blanch them! Depending on the size and shape of your green beans, blanching cook times can vary a bit. Start tasting the beans at 3.5 minutes, and don’t go past about 5 minutes in the boiling water. You want a bright, brilliant green color and a nice, tender snap. As soon as you get that, kill the heat and drain the beans. You can even run them under cold water to really stop the cooking.
Make the green beans pesto-y! Toast the pine nuts in a bit of butter, add some fresh basil pesto and the green beans and stir it all together until it’s just warmed through (it doesn’t need to be hot and you don’t want to risk overcooking the green beans.
Serve! Top with more pesto and a sprinkle of salt if you’d like!
More Fabulous Green Bean Recipes (Aka What to Do if You Have Too Many Green Beans!)
Tools You’ll Need:
Pesto Green Beans All Summer Long
Healthy, speedy and yummy, pesto green beans are an easy go-to side dish for almost any meal! Grilled steak? Check. Baked salmon? Yup. Burgers? Why not? They’re super versatile, and they’re really popular with almost everyone. If you try this green bean recipe, let us know how you like it! Share a photo and tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper so that we can see your stuff! Happy eating!
