These cast iron green beans are a delicious and flavorful side dish perfect for any meal. Serve them up with dinner and watch how quickly they become an instant family favorite!
Recipe: $2.34 | Per Serving: $0.39 | Servings: 6
Cooking green beans in a cast iron skillet brings out the best in green beans, ensuring even cooking and a wonderfully blistered texture. Not only does it enhance the flavor of the beans, but it also adds a nice amount of color to your plates as well.
Made with fresh green beans and seasoned with simple seasonings, it's a quick, tasty addition to any meal. Ready in just 30 minutes, these green beans are sure to be a hit, making family dinners a breeze!
If you love green bean recipes, then don't forget to try our Italian Green Beans with Tomatoes, Air Fryer Canned Green Beans, and Instant Pot Steamed Green Beans.
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🍯 Why This Recipe Works
- Simple ingredients. One of the best things about this recipe is that it uses very simple household ingredients, many of which you may already have on hand!
- They're flavorful. These pan seared green beans are packed with flavor in every soft and crisp bite. This green bean skillet recipe is a perfect blend of fresh green beans and garlic with a little tangy lemon for added freshness.
- They'll be great served with anything. Serve them up with a holiday feast next to some Cajun Turkey Breast, a simple Sunday roast, or at your next BBQ, and they're sure to be enjoyed at any occasion.
🥘 Ingredients
Ingredient Notes:
Butter- You'll want the butter to help grease the pan and start the caramelization of the green beans.
Fresh green beans- This recipe uses freshly washed and trimmed green beans. If you still have green beans leftover, be sure to try our Garlic Parmesan Roasted Green Beans.
Soy sauce- Adding in soy sauce will help to give us a lot of great flavor depth.
Lemon juice- You'll want some lemon juice because it helps brighten the green beans' colors and adds a nice refreshing flavor profile.
For specific ingredients and measurements, please see the recipe card below.
🔪 Instructions for Cast Iron Green Beans
Step 1: Heat your skillet over medium-high heat.
Step 2: Melt the butter in the skillet.
Step 3: Add in the fresh green beans and then cook until looking blistered and golden along the sides. This will take several minutes (about 10 minutes).
Step 4: Add in the soy sauce, red pepper flakes, garlic, and paprika. Toss well to combine.
Step 5: Now add in the lemon juice and stir to combine.
Serve warm.
🧾 How to Prep Green Beans
- Rinse: Rinse the green beans in a colander under cool running water to remove any dirt.
- Dry: Place the green beans on a towel to dry as you prepare a cutting board and knife.
- Arrange: Place the green beans horizontally onto the cutting board, ensuring the ends are even. Adjust them if needed.
- Trim Ends: Use a large knife to trim off about ¼ inch from the ends to remove the hard parts. Some beans may need more trimming than others.
- Optional: Alternatively, snap off the ends of each green bean with your fingers, though this method is more time-consuming.
- Cut or Snap: If necessary, cut or snap the green beans in half to ensure they are all relatively the same length.
🍴 Recipe Tips
- Choosing the Right Pan. You can use any similar-sized pan to cook this recipe; it doesn't have to be a cast iron skillet.
- Versatility for Outdoor Cooking. These cast iron skillet green beans can also be prepared on a grill or campfire. Simply ensure direct heat at approximately 375 degrees F.
- Adjusting Cooking Heat. If the green beans are blistering and browning too quickly but remain raw inside or too crunchy, reduce the heat and cover the pan with foil to steam them slightly as they cook.
🥗 Main Dishes
This recipe goes great when served alongside simple main dishes like Crispy Sour Cream and Onion Chicken or Garlic Brown Sugar Pork Tenderloin.
💭 Recipe FAQs
While you can wash the green beans and let them dry on a paper towel-lined colander in the fridge for a few hours I do not recommend cutting off the ends until ready to cook. This is because once those ends are cut you are exposing the insides to air that can dry out the veggies. We don't want the green beans to dry and shrivel up.
While this recipe can be doubled I would only recommend that if you are using a 14 or 16-inch skillet as a 12-inch skillet would be too small to hold in all of the green beans and not make a mess. The cooking time might extend a few minutes as well as get all of the beans blistered and the liquid to cook out of the pan.
I recommend either cooking them on a skillet until warmed through or placing them into the oven at 350 degrees F for a few minutes. Either of these methods will help to regain some of the crispness of the green beans while heating them through. If you like your green beans softer then you may microwave a serving at a time for about 1-2 minutes.
❤️ More Delicious Side Dish Recipes
If you tried these Cast Iron Green Beans, please leave a ⭐️ star rating and share your feedback in the 📝 comments section below. I would truly appreciate it!
📖 Recipe
Cast Iron Green Beans
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons butter ($0.25)
- 16 ounces fresh green beans, prepped ($1.78)
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce *low-sodium preferred ($0.02)
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes ($0.02)
- 2 cloves minced garlic ($0.16)
- ¼ teaspoon paprika ($0.02)
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice ($0.09)
- salt and pepper *to taste
Instructions
- Heat your skillet over medium-high heat.
- Melt the butter in the skillet.
- Add in the fresh green beans and then cook until looking blistered and golden along the sides. This will take several minutes (about 10).
- Add in the soy sauce, red pepper flakes, garlic, and paprika. Toss well to combine.
- Now add in the lemon juice and stir to combine.
- Serve warm.
Notes
- Wash and trim green beans, cutting if needed for even lengths.
- Don't prep until ready to cook to prevent drying.
- Cook over direct heat at 375°F on grill or campfire.
- If beans cook too fast, reduce heat to medium-low and cover with foil briefly.
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