Air Fryer Canned Green Beans

Name: Air Fryer Canned Green Beans
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 13 min
Ingredients: 2 cans green beans, drained (($1.16)); 1/2 onion, sliced thinly (($0.35)); 1/4 teaspoon salt (($0.02)); 1/4 teaspoon pepper (($0.02)); 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (($0.02))

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Air fryer canned green beans is a delicious and simple side dish perfect for any meal. Add flavor and color to your plate with this frugal recipe.

cooked canned green beans with sliced onions in a bowl

We really enjoy eating canned green beans. In fact, they may be our preferred version of these green veggies. While we normally cook them on the stovetop, I couldn't help but try them in the air fryer.

My air fryer gets a lot of action, and we've cooked everything from Frozen Mozzarella Sticks to a Club Sandwich, and even a pumpkin pie! So why not canned veggies?

Why This Recipe Works

It's easy. Similar to our Air Fryer Frozen Green Beans, this recipe uses basic seasonings to keep things nice and simple.
It's cheap! Canned vegetables are one of the cheapest forms of vegetables unless you pluck them from the garden yourself or get them free. Add in some basic pantry staples, and you're looking at a very affordable dish.
No oven is needed. This recipe is perfect whether your oven is temporarily out of commission, looking for recipes to cook while you're out of the house and only keeping a few appliances handy, or you simply don't want to heat up the house.

Jump to:

🥘 Ingredients
🍽 Equipment Needed
🔪 Instructions
🍴 Recipe Tips
🍳 Reheating
⏲️ Make Ahead Instructions
👩🏻‍🍳 Storage
🥣 Recipe Add-Ins
💭 FAQs
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

🥘 Ingredients

Canned green beans- You will need a can of your favorite green beans. Any cut will work fine but French-cut green beans may cook faster and become crispy.

Onion- For added sweet and savory flavors, you'll need a little bit of fresh onion to toast alongside the veggies.

Seasonings- Keep things simple with some basic pantry staple seasonings like salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

For specific quantities, see the recipe card below.

🍽 Equipment Needed

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Measuring Spoons
Cutting Board
Sharp Knife
6qt Air Fryer
Mixing Bowls

🔪 Instructions

Check out how to make air fryer canned green beans with these simple step-by-step instructions:

a bowl full of drained canned green beans, onion, and seasonings

Add all of the ingredients to a large mixing bowl.

onions, seasonings and drained canned green beans combined in a mixing bowl

Gently toss well to coat evenly.

Place everything into the basket of your air fryer.

cooked green beans and onion in an air fryer

Air fry at 365 degrees F for 8 minutes.

Serve warm. Enjoy!

a bowl full of cooked green beans and onion

🍴 Recipe Tips

Reducing sodium

If you're trying to reduce some sodium in your diet, you'll want to make sure to double-check the backs of the cans of green beans at the store. Some brands are much higher in sodium content, and I have personally found the ones saying "organic" to be higher in sodium than regular.

Draining and rinsing the green beans in water will help to remove some of the excess sodium since most of it is in the liquid anyways.

Be gentle

Make sure to be gentle as you mix the green beans because they are pretty easy to squish. I like the regular-cut green beans because they're a little more forgiving than french cut, but you can use whichever you have on hand.

🍳 Reheating

Reheating your green beans is simple and easy, using a pan on the stovetop and a little pad of butter, but I like to reheat one serving at a time on a plate in the microwave.

You can reheat these green beans in a skillet on the stove over medium heat, or on a microwave-safe plate for about 30 seconds in the microwave. I prefer the microwave if I'm heating 1-2 servings, but the skillet can be handy for a larger portion.

⏲️ Make Ahead Instructions

Want to make dinner a little more quickly? Prepare the green bean and onion mixture in a baggie and store it in the fridge for up to 2 days before cooking them. This means all you'll need to do later is plop them in the air fryer and push a few buttons.

👩🏻‍🍳 Storage

You can keep leftover cooked green beans in the fridge for up to 4 or 5 days. I recommend eating them when they are freshest, as that is when they'll taste the best.

🥣 Recipe Add-Ins

Bacon. Feel free to add in some (already cooked) strips of bacon or some real pieces of bacon bits. This can really help to elevate the dish.

Melted butter. If desired, add 1-2 tablespoons of melted butter to the bowl when mixing everything together for a richer taste.

💭 FAQs

Are canned green beans good for you?

Green beans are full of great vitamins and nutrients like vitamin K, calcium, potassium, fiber, and folic acid. Canned veggies can be just as healthy and nutritious as fresh or frozen veggies because canning helps to preserve these qualities.

Should I rinse canned green beans?

You don't "have to" rinse your green beans, but I recommend doing it whenever a recipe specifically asks for it (like this one does). This helps to improve the flavor and helps the green beans to retain shape when cooked.

How do you make a can of green beans taste good?

By adding flavors! If you simply reheat a can of green beans without adding anything to it, there's a good chance no one will want to eat it as-is. But, if we add salt, pepper, and a few more spices to it, we can really have a delicious dish everyone will enjoy.

aerial view of half of a bowl filled with air fryer green beans and onions

More great side dish recipes to check out soon

📖 Recipe

an upclose view of cooked air fryer green beans and onion in a bowl

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5 from 2 votes