Natural form

Fresh green beans showing slim cylindrical pods with stem ends and tapered tips.

Shows the defining physical characteristics — color, shape, length, and surface texture — that identify a green bean at a glance.

Produce

Green Bean

Crisp, snappy pods for steaming, sautéing, and salads

Bright and snappy, green beans steam tender-crisp, sauté with garlic, and hold up in a salad. Trim the stem ends and cook just until vivid. Keep them cold and dry.

Green beans (string beans, haricots verts) are crisp, slender pods eaten whole, snappy and grassy-sweet. They're a fast, reliable vegetable — steamed or blanched to tender-crisp brightness, sautéed with garlic, roasted until blistered, or simmered soft Southern-style. The trick is to stop cooking while they're still vivid green and have some bite; overcooked, they go drab and limp. Trim, cook briefly, and finish with something punchy.

Measured in: g
Storage: Refrigerate
Shelf life: 7 days

Find it in

Produce

Types & varieties

Common green bean

The standard snap bean; all-purpose

Haricot vert

Slim, tender French bean; quick-cooking, refined

Romano (flat) bean

Wide, flat, meaty; great braised

Yellow wax / purple bean

Same crunch, different color (purple turns green when cooked)

How to choose

Want firm, smooth, brightly colored beans that snap cleanly in half — that snap is the freshness test. Avoid limp, rubbery beans that bend, ones with bulging, lumpy seeds visible through the pod (a sign of age and toughness), or any with brown spots and shriveling. Thinner beans are the most tender.

How to store and prep

Keep green beans unwashed in the crisper, loosely bagged, for up to a week. Wash and trim just before cooking: snap or cut off the stem end (the tail tip is tender and can stay on). Modern varieties are mostly stringless, so de-stringing is rarely needed.

Refrigerate dry; use within a week
Trim the stem ends before cooking
Thin beans cook fastest and most tender

Cook bright, or cook soft

For crisp-tender beans with vivid color, blanch or steam them just until bright green and snappy, then shock in ice water to lock the color (and hold them for later sautéing). For deep, comforting flavor, go the other way — braise them long and slow with stock, garlic, or tomato until meltingly soft. Both are good; the in-between olive-drab simmer is the one to avoid.

Common uses

Sautéed garlic green beansGreen bean casseroleSalade niçoiseRoasted blistered beansGreen beans almondineBraised Southern-styleStir-fries (dry-fried beans)Three-bean salad

Tips & pitfalls

Blanch and shock in ice water to lock in bright green color
Roast at high heat until blistered for a sweet, charred side
Finish blanched beans with garlic, lemon, almonds, or brown butter
Don't crowd the roasting pan or they'll steam, not blister
For Southern-style, braise low and slow until silky

Nutrition

31kcal

Energy

130 kJ · per 100 g

Where the calories come from

Protein 20%Carbs 75%Fat 5%

Protein

1.8g

4% DV

Carbs

3% DV

Fat

0.2g

0% DV

Fiber

2.7g

10% DV

Sugars

3.3g

of which

Sodium

6mg

0% DV

Notable micronutrients

Vitamin K36% DV

Vitamin C14% DV

Riboflavin (B2)8% DV

Vitamin B68% DV

Folate8% DV

Thiamin (B1)7% DV

Source · USDA FoodData Central · Beans, snap, green, raw

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In the shops

Matched grocery products

Flat Green Bean
350 g · Mercadona
€1.70
Flat Green Beans
750 g · Mercadona
€2.95
Round Green Bean
500 g · Mercadona
€2.80
Round Green Beans
Hacendado · 660 g · Mercadona
€1.20
Green Beans, Chopped
FINDUS · kg · Bonpreu
€2.89
Fine Whole Green Beans
FINDUS · kg · Bonpreu
€3.99

Good to know

Peak season: Summer (peak); available year-round
Flavor: Grassy, fresh, lightly sweet; crisp-tender
Origin: Central and South America; a common bean grown for the pod
Nutrition: ~31 kcal/100g; fiber, vitamins C, K, folate
How to buy: Firm, smooth, vivid green; snap crisply; no bulging seeds or limpness

Substitutes