Asian Green Beans
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These Asian Green Beans are the perfect side dish featuring fresh green beans in an Asian style sweet and spicy sauce. They’re perfectly tender-crisp and incredibly flavorful, ready in about 25 minutes from start to finish.
Quick And Easy Asian Style Green Beans Recipe
I usually go through different culinary moods and right now I’m in my Asian mood. So yes, I’ve been making a lot of Asian dishes, because not only do I love eating them, but they are incredibly easy to make. This is how these Asian style green beans came to be. I’ve been making salmon bites, which I will eventually share the recipe with you, but I’ve been making these green beans as a side.
They taste amazing, perfectly tender-crisp, not to mention very quick and easy to make. They’re also the perfect side to anything, really. The sauce is sweet and spicy with a great umami flavor but it’s also very versatile. If you don’t like it spicy, then just skip the chili garlic sauce and if you like it spicier then use as much as you like.
Asian Green Beans Highlights
- Quick And Easy. With only a couple steps to this recipe, anyone can do it. Just sauté the beans, toss them with the sauce and these beans are ready to be devoured.
- Customizable. The sauce is very customizable, don’t have one ingredient, simply replace it with something else you have. Usually when I make this I don’t even follow my recipe, I just pull out whatever ingredients I think will go well together. But not only is the sauce customizable, you can also use this on different veggies, like broccoli, peppers or mushrooms.
- Perfect Side Dish To Any Protein. Pair this with salmon, chicken, beef and some rice for a complete meal.
- Green Beans – You’ll want to use fresh green beans to have the most tender-crisp bite. I haven’t tried with frozen green beans, though it will work, fresh is the way to go.
- Soy Sauce – I used regular low sodium soy sauce and a little bit of dark soy sauce for some nice color. If you don’t have dark soy sauce, no worries, just sub it with a bit more regular soy sauce. Use tamari for gluten-free option.
- Chili Garlic Sauce – Such as Sambal Oelek which is my favorite, or you can use Sriracha. If you don’t like any heat, you can totally skip this ingredient.
- Garlic – I just used one clove of garlic for a bit of garlicky flavor, but you can totally use as much as you like.
- Chili Oil – Some chili oils are extremely spicy, the one I used is not really spicy at all but it has a nice nutty and umami flavor. If you don’t have it, no worries, just sub it with peanut oil or sesame oil.
- Honey – For a little bit of sweetness to balance out all the other ingredients.
- Sesame Oil – You’ll need a bit of sesame oil to sauté the green beans in.
- Sesame Seeds – I love to finish dish dish with some toasted sesame seeds but that little bit of crunch.
- Sauté the beans. Heat a wok, skillet or non-stick pan, over medium-high heat then add the sesame oil. Add the green beans and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Make the sauce and toss with beans. Combine all the sauce ingredients together then pour over the green beans and toss well. Cook for another 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Garnish and serve. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve.
Can I Use Frozen Green Beans?
I don’t recommend using frozen green beans, because you won’t end up with tender and crisp beans. If you want to sub these with another bean, I recommend using Chinese green beans which are really long, so I recommend cutting them in half.
Serve These Asian Green Beans With
Asian Steak Bites
Mongolian Beef
Chinese Honey Chicken
Asian Glazed Salmon in Foil
Expert Tips
- Don’t overcooked the green beans. They should be bright green and perfectly tender-crips. Parboiling them is not necessary.
- Feel free to play with the spices. Different ingredients you can add to the sauce are ginger, red pepper flakes, etc.
- Customize this recipe to fit your needs. Include other veggies such as mushrooms, baby bok choy, or broccoli.
Leftovers
Place cooled green beans in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. You can reheat them in the microwave or in a skillet with a splash of chicken or vegetable broth.
More Great Side Dishes To Try
- Skillet Green Beans
- Old Fashioned Green Beans
- Roasted Green Beans and Mushrooms
- Green Bean Casserole From Scratch
- The Ultimate Parmesan Roasted Broccoli
- Broccoli Salad
- Sautéed Peas
- Roasted Green Beans
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Asian Green Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound green beans (cleaned and ends trimmed)
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Sauce
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce (low sodium)
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce (like sambal oelek)
- 1 tablespoon chili oil
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds (toasted)
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- Sauté the beans. Heat a wok over medium-high heat then add the sesame oil. Add the green beans and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Make the sauce and toss with beans. Combine all the sauce ingredients together then pour over the green beans and toss well. Cook for another 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Garnish and serve. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve.
Notes
- Don’t overcooked the green beans. They should be bright green and perfectly tender-crips. Parboiling them is not necessary.
- Feel free to play with the spices. Different ingredients you can add to the sauce are ginger, red pepper flakes, etc.
- Customize this recipe to fit your needs. Include other veggies such as mushrooms, baby bok choy, or broccoli.
- Place cooled green beans in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. You can reheat them in the microwave or in a skillet with a splash of chicken or vegetable broth.
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Added a little fresh ginger. Delicious!
My husband made this recipe tonight in a cast iron pan and it was absolutely delicious! Our 13 year old even went nuts for it. Perfect accompaniment to his homemade chicken terriyaki. 🙂
We loved these Asian green beans; they are quick to cook, the sauce is simple and the flavor is outstanding. I will make this recipe again – thanks for posting!
My pleasure, glad you enjoyed it!
I have made different versions of this and like this one a lot. Added a little rice vinegar as other recipes call for it, also brown sugar which I did not add. I like the black gooey look on the beans. Thanks
Glad you liked them!
Very flavorful and quick to put together wonderful side, even if not preparing an Asian meal! We have a bounty of frozen green beans from the garden. Thanks for a wonderful go to recipe for green beans! What wok do you use.? Thanks!!
I use the cooklover wok and love it because it’s nonstick and really easy to clean. It’s linked in the recipe card under equipment.
I’ve been looking for a way to get flavor into green beans! This was quick and easy and delicious!
Glad you liked it!
I made this recipe for Asian green beans tonight. The only thing I didn’t have was chili oil. It was delicious! Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe and all the others I plan to use in the near future.
My pleasure, so glad you liked it!
I really like that you can sub in other vegetables. For health reasons, I’ve been having to cut back on meat and carbs so this kind of recipe is right in my wheelhouse. There isn’t a veggie that I don’t like except cooked asparagus and that I like raw in my salads. We’ve actually tried many of your green bean recipes and love them all – thanks! P.S. That wok you have is gorgeous – what would we do without Amazon, right?
I love that wok! When I discovered it I bought 3, that’s how much I love them! Glad you’re enjoying my recipes. 🙂