Easy Homemade Chinese Green Beans

Name: Easy Homemade Chinese Green Beans
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce (or a gluten-free alternative); 1 teaspoon rice vinegar; 1 teaspoon honey; 1 teaspoon cornstarch; 1 teaspoon fresh garlic (minced); ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes; 1 tablespoon avocado oil; 12 ounces green beans (trimmed, long ones halved)

Jump to Recipe

Wonderfully tender-crisp and well-seasoned, these flavorful Chinese green beans are one of my favorite side dishes. Ready in about 25 minutes, they're so easy to make. And the leftovers are delicious!

Chinese green beans are served on a white plate with chopsticks.

Green beans are delicious! Even simply boiled green beans, liberally salted, are good. When tender-crisp, they are like a salty snack. But these Chinese green beans are especially flavorful, and the secret is to saute them briefly, just until tender-crisp. The sauce - featuring garlic, soy sauce, and honey - is restaurant-level good.

Ingredients

The full list of ingredients and exact measurements are listed in the recipe card below. Here are my comments on some of the ingredients.

Fresh green beans: I tried making this recipe with frozen beans, and it wasn't as good. Fresh beans are much better. They come out tender-crisp, while frozen beans are a little too mushy.
Soy sauce: I use reduced-sodium soy sauce in most of my recipes. You can also use a gluten-free alternative.
Honey: Just a little to balance out the other flavors in this recipe. It doesn't make the dish taste sweet.
Minced garlic: Mince it yourself, or use the stuff that comes in a jar. I tested both, and freshly minced does taste best, though.
Red pepper flakes: I use ½ teaspoon, which makes the dish quite spicy. If you don't like spicy food, you can use half that amount.
Sesame oil: To finish the dish after it's cooked. It adds great flavor!

Variations

You can use half a teaspoon of garlic powder in the sauce instead of fresh garlic. As mentioned above, I tried both options, and freshly minced garlic is much better. But in a pinch, garlic powder is an acceptable substitute.
You can add a teaspoon of minced fresh ginger to the sauce. It adds excellent flavor.
Try toasting a tablespoon of sesame seeds and sprinkling them on the finished dish. It looks good and also enhances the beans' flavor.
Instead of red pepper flakes, I sometimes mix a teaspoon of hot pepper sauce into the sauce. The only caveat is that pepper sauce tends to create more fumes when cooked, so if you're sensitive to that, you might want to stick with pepper flakes (and possibly use less of them).

Instructions

Scroll down to the recipe card for detailed instructions. Here are the basic steps for making this recipe:

Your first step is to mix the sauce ingredients - soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, cornstarch, garlic, and red pepper flakes.

Sauté the beans in avocado oil until they are tender-crisp and just begin to brown in spots.

Reduce the heat to low, add the sauce, and cook briefly, just until the green beans are coated and the sauce has thickened.

Drizzle the beans with sesame oil and serve.

The dish is served and eaten with chopsticks.

Expert Tip

Cooked green beans should be bright green and tender-crisp. You don't want them brown and limp. So even though we want them to be browned in some spots, we don't want to overcook them.

Eight minutes over medium heat works for me (plus a minute after adding the sauce). But keep a close eye on them as you cook. Depending on how hot your stovetop runs, they might be ready faster.

Recipe FAQs

Should I parboil the beans?

Some recipes instruct you to parboil the beans before sautéing them. Frankly, I lack the patience for that, and I also find it unnecessary.

One-step cooking is always better than two-step cooking, and washing one pot is preferable to washing two! So no, I don't parboil the beans, and they turn out beautiful - bright green, crisp, and delicious.

Can I make this recipe with frozen green beans?

I tried that and don't recommend it. You want the beans to be tender-crisp, impossible to achieve with frozen beans.

How do you make green beans taste better?

1. Use young, very fresh beans. Those will taste great even when simply boiled. Never use canned green beans! They tend to have an unpleasant metallic taste, and they also tend to be brownish and limp.

2. Saute the green beans with lots of butter and garlic. Everything tastes good when cooked with butter and garlic.

3. Cook the beans in a bold, spicy sauce such as the one we use here or the one I use in these spicy green beans.

4. Smother them in cheese! Much like butter, cheese elevates vegetables. Try this cheesy green bean casserole, for example. It's wonderful.

Serving Suggestions

You don't have to serve these green beans with an Asian-style meal. They are quite versatile and go well with any meat or fish.

I often serve them with grilled chicken breast, baked pork chops, broiled shrimp, or seared tuna. They are also very nice alongside fried or poached eggs for a tasty and filling meatless meal.

Still, they obviously pair well with Chinese-style dishes. So, I often serve them with Asian meatballs or Asian salmon.

Storing Leftovers

You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat them in the microwave at 50% power. Sometimes, I snack on them cold - they are surprisingly good that way!

Chinese green beans are served on a white plate with red chopsticks.

More Green Bean Recipes

Sign up for weekly meal ideas, cooking tips, and real food recipes straight to your inbox! We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

Recipe Card

5 from 48 votes

Save this Recipe Print Recipe

Wonderfully tender-crisp and well seasoned, these Chinese green beans are ready fast and go well with many different meals.

Prep Time10

Cook Time15

Total Time25

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Chinese

Servings: servings

Calories: 115kcal

Author: Vered DeLeeuw

Video

Ingredients

Sauce:

▢ 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce - or a gluten-free alternative
▢ 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
▢ 1 teaspoon honey
▢ 1 teaspoon cornstarch
▢ 1 teaspoon fresh garlic - minced
▢ ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Beans:

▢ 1 tablespoon avocado oil
▢ 12 ounces green beans - trimmed, long ones halved

Instructions

In a medium bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, and cornstarch. Mix in the garlic and red pepper flakes. Set aside.
In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat for about 3 minutes. Add the green beans and sauté them, stirring often, until they are tender-crisp and just begin to brown in spots, about 8 minutes.
Reduce the heat to low. Give the sauce another whisk, then add it to the skillet. Cook, stirring, until the beans are coated in the sauce and the sauce has thickened, for about 1 minute.
Transfer the green beans to a serving plate, drizzle them with sesame oil, and serve.

Notes

Cooked green beans should be bright green and tender-crisp. You don't want them brown and limp. So even though we want them to be browned in some spots, we don't want to overcook them.
Eight minutes over medium heat works for me (plus a minute after adding the sauce). But keep a close eye on them as you cook. Depending on how hot your stovetop runs, they might be ready faster.
You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat them in the microwave at 50% power.

Nutrition per Serving

Save this Recipe!

We'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!

We will also add you to our weekly newsletter. Unsubscribe anytime. See healthyrecipesblogs.com/privacy/ to learn how we use your email.

Disclaimers

Most recipes are low-carb and gluten-free, but some are not. Recommended and linked products are not guaranteed to be gluten-free. Nutrition info is approximate. Please verify it independently. The carb count excludes non-nutritive sweeteners. Please read these Terms of Use before using any of my recipes.

Chinese Green Beans

Ingredients

Variations

Instructions

Expert Tip

Recipe FAQs

Serving Suggestions

Storing Leftovers

More Green Bean Recipes

Recipe Card