1,441 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

How to prepare green beans

Here's how to turn freshly bought (or picked) green beans into ready-to-use vegetables.

13K 4/5 based on 4 reviews

Last modified on: August 11^th 2023

Keywords for this recipe:

For 450 g, you will need:

1 1 lb + 1.6 oz green beans

Change these quantities to make: 150 g 225 g 450 g 900 g 1 kg 350 g

Change measures: Metric

Metric weight Metric volumes

How long will it take?

Time required for this recipe:

Preparation	Start to finish
22 min.	22 min.

At what time:

When will I finish if I start the recipe at ... ?
When should I start for the recipe to be ready at ... ?
Work this out...

Step by step recipe

Stage 1

Green beans are all good...

Stage 2

...except for the two ends or tips, which have to be removed - that's the whole job of preparing them.

There are 2 methods for achieving this.

Stage 3

The "old-fashioned" way

Take each bean in your hand, then with the other hand break off the tip by bending it, throw it away, then do the same with the other tip.

Stage 4

To obtain a bean like this.

This is the procedure when dealing with stringy beans, and breaking the tip by hand also removes the threads.
No secret, it's quite a long process...

Perhaps it's something you've already done, back in the day, at your grandmother's house?

Stage 5

Quick method

With stringy beans all but extinct these days, a much quicker method is to take a small packet of beans...

Stage 6

...and cutting off all the ends at once, on one side...

Stage 7

...then the other.

Stage 8 - 20 min.

Use the method of your choice for all the beans, and place them in a colander.

Stage 9 - 2 min.

Then wash them, and your green beans are ready to cook.

Stage 10

Cooking

Cook the beans in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender.

Stage 11

Drain and refresh under cold running water to stop cooking immediately.

Drain again carefully.

Stage 12

You can then cut them into pieces (more or less small), depending on your recipe.

Stage 13

If you intend to use them in a salad, I recommend drying them carefully in a tea towel beforehand, to remove any cooking water that might interfere with your salad dressing.

Alternatively, you can spin them.

Remarks

You can prepare butter beans (yellow) in the same way.

Keeping

A few days in the fridge, and can be frozen.

Source

Home made.

Nutritional information

Whole recipe
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
190 Kcal or 795 Kj	13 gr	35 gr	0 gr
10 %	5 %	3 %	0 %

Per 100 g
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
38 Kcal or 159 Kj	3 gr	7 gr	0 gr
2 %	1 %	1 %	0 %

% are calculated relative to a Recommended Dietary Intake or RDI of 2000 k-calories or 8400 k-joules by day for a woman (change to a man).

How much will it cost?

For 450 g : 2.00 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

This recipe uses (among others)

Green beans: You can check-out other recipes which use it, like for example: Grandma's salad, Mexican-style pork medallions , Macédoine of vegetables, Salmon "en papillote" with small vegetables, Green beans with tomatoes, ... All

Other recipes you may also like

Cauliflower tabouleh

In this tabouleh recipe, the couscous or bulgur is replaced with grated cauliflower florets. This gives it a very fresh and amazing flavour.
April 22^th 2012121K4.1 1 hour 38 min.

Home-made potato crisps

Making your own potato crisps (or chips, if you are American) is quite easy. All you need to do is slice potatoes and fry them. That is all well and good in principle, but there are a few tips it is important to know. I'll explain them for you in this recipe.
March 19^th 2014101K3.9 26 min.

Smoky potato and potimarron gratin

This gratin has an unusual twist: it not only combines potatoes with potimarron, the potatoes are boiled in the water left after cooking a Morteau sausage, to give a lovely smoky flavour. Guaranteed to transport your tastebuds to eastern France!
March 13^th 201940K 2 hours 10 min.

Mont d'or in brioche

For this delicious winter Comtoise recipe, we enclose a layer of grilled onions, diced Morteau sausage, sautéed potatoes and a Mont d'or in a brioche pastry. The whole thing, rather like a large pie, is baked in the oven, before being slit open to enjoy the melted Mont d'or that has deliciously...
February 18^th 20247,885 3 hours 36 min.

Courgettes (zuchinis)

A classic gratin, but with the courgettes cooked separately to prevent too much juice being released during the oven cooking, and so make a dish that is barely moist.
October 13^th 2010496K 13.7 1 hour 20 min.

News list of cooking-ez.com

Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.