Roasted Green Beans Recipe
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This Roasted Green Beans Recipe is an easy 3-ingredient side dish you can dress up with flavors or enjoy on its own. Roasting lightly seasoned green beans in the oven only takes 25 minutes and leaves your hands free to focus on the main dish. This is one of my go-to late summer sides, and I know you’ll love it, too.
My family and I can’t get enough of green beans when they’re in season from summer to fall. They’re crunchy, sweet, and taste great whether they’re roasted, boiled, sautéed, grilled, or served raw. You can catch us using them for an impressive Green Bean Casserole around the holidays. We enjoy pairing them with most of our main dishes for the rest of the season.
Easy Roasted Green Beans
Roasted green beans are lightly seasoned with salt, pepper, and oil before they’re cooked in the oven until they’re lightly golden, tender, and full of flavor. There’s no need to boil or blanche fresh green beans ahead of time—the oven takes care of that for you. Even the seasonings don’t need to be fancy since green beans are plenty sweet and earthy all on their own. You could, however, dress them up with a few optional garnishes.
To transform this common summer vegetable into a stand-out side dish, I like to zhuzh them up with a handful of additional flavors. Fresh lemon juice and zest add a bright zing, while minced garlic and grated Parmesan cheese are perfect for the savory food fans. Tailor this recipe to your liking—I know you’ll love the roasted beans, whether they’re served as is or with your choice of garnishes.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Green Beans: I usually use fresh haricot verts or French-style green beans. Their long and thin shape helps this side dish look as good as it tastes.
- Oil: Olive oil or avocado oil is best here.
- Seasonings: Just salt and pepper.
- Garnish: When I want to dress up the cooked green beans, I’ll toss them with extra flavor enhancers. Minced garlic cloves are a common one, but roasted garlic also works well. You can also use lemon juice, lemon zest, and/or Parmigiano Reggiano.
How to Roast Green Beans
Season the beans: I start by tossing the green beans with the olive oil, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Usually, I’ll taste one of the beans to make sure the seasonings are just right.
Roast: I spread the seasoned beans on a lined sheet tray and then transfer them to the upper third rack in the oven. I roast the green beans until they’re lightly browned and tender.
Garnish and serve: Once they’re done roasting, I’ll either serve the warm beans as is or garnish them with additional flavors, such as minced garlic, freshly squeezed lemon juice, lemon zest, and/or grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Chef Tip + Notes
I only tested this recipe with fresh, seasonal green beans, but frozen green beans should work in a pinch. You do not need to thaw them ahead of time, but you should blot them dry with paper towels to soak up any extra moisture or ice. Quickly toss them with the oil and seasonings, then roast them in the oven. They may not be as tender as fresh green beans, but they will still taste good.
- Trim the green beans: Remember to trim the stems from the green beans before tossing them in the seasonings. Either slice them off with a knife or snap them off with your fingers.
- For extra-cheesy roasted green beans: top the beans with grated cheese during the last 5 minutes of roasting. The heat will melt the cheese and make your green beans extra gooey.
- Roast the beans with aromatics: You also have the option to roast the beans with a finely diced small yellow onion or half of a minced shallot. Both will give the beans a savory, earthy aroma and flavor.
- More ways to season green beans: Instead of just using salt and pepper, toss the green beans with a pinch of garlic powder, red pepper flakes, cumin, or ranch seasoning before cooking.
- More garnish ideas: Feel free to customize this green bean side dish with as many garnishes as you like. Slivered almonds, crumbled goat cheese, crispy bacon, fresh herbs (parsley, thyme, basil, etc.), chopped olives, capers, and leftover diced ham are all delicious options.
Serving Suggestions
You’ll find me serving roasted green beans with almost all of our family dinners during summer and fall. Because of their mild flavor and flexibility, they pair well with almost everything.
We like them best with this Bourbon Glazed Salmon for regular family dinners, as well as my Grilled BBQ Chicken when it’s nice enough to grill outside. The green beans are also a perfect holiday side dish. I’ll usually make a batch to serve with the roasted turkey and sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Make-Ahead: The oven-roasted green beans are best served immediately after cooking. You can keep them warm in a covered pan or serving dish for up to 15 minutes before serving.
How to Store: Once cool, transfer the cooked green beans to an airtight container. Store them in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. I typically do not recommend freezing cooked vegetables because they’ll lose their tender texture after thawing.
How to Reheat: Saute the leftover green beans in a skillet with a splash of stock, water, or butter. Heat the beans over medium until they’re warmed through and slightly tender again. Feel free to top them with additional garnishes, as desired.
More Roasted Vegetable Recipes
Roasted Green Beans Recipe
Ingredients
For the Green Beans:
- 2 pounds trimmed fresh green beans
- ¼ cup olive oil
- coarse salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste
Additional flavors:
- 2 finely minced garlic cloves
- zest of lemon
- juice of ½ lemon
- 3 tablespoons grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- In a large bowl, mix together the beans, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Feel free to try a bean to ensure it’s properly seasoned.
- Spread the beans out on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and place on a middle or upper third rack in the oven and cook for 20 minutes or until lightly browned and tender. Feel free to move the beans around halfway through the cooking process to brown more sides.
- Remove the beans from the oven and serve as is.
- As soon as the beans are removed from the oven, mix in the garlic. The beans will still be plenty hot to cook the garlic and take away the bite.
- Serve the beans in a bowl and squeeze on lemon juice, and add lemon zest and Parmigiano.
Easy and a big hit at our Christmas dinner! Lemon zest adds a special taste!
Yummy!!!
Delish, grated two cloves of garlic. Convection oven baked at your suggested temp for a nice barely there char. Lemon zest was the perfect finishing touch. Thank you for a lovely accompaniment to leftover pork chops and eggplant rollatini.
many thanks!
Soo tasty thank you Chef Billy 😁😋🤩👋
Thanks for trying this as well!
How do you keep the garlic from burning?
put the pan closer to the bottom of the oven.
I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive. I am not a lemon fan. Don’t mind it as an acid but a little goes a long way with me. However, I just knew my wife would like it and since I was doing dinner tonight I thought, “why not?”.
I had some thick cut boneless pork chops so I grilled them with rosemary and thyme on them for flavor, and I also caramelized some onion, not a lot, but I was looking for flavor. Served the pork chops with the caramelized onion and a balsamic reduction and the roasted garlic green beans.
I was cutting my pork chop when she said, “is this a Billy recipe”. I said no that I have made these chops before. She said she was not referring to the pork but the green beans. I said yes and she said that they were delicious. I tried them and had to agree. The lemon acted as an acid to balance the garlic. Outstanding. Thank you Billy.
Leftovers? What leftovers??? We went crazy on these they were so delicious!
I made these green beans this weekend and they were great. I loved the lemon with the beans.
Made this recipe for Christmas Dinner as an alternative to green bean casserole which I love, but we had just had it several times so it was a nice change! Very grear recipe! Thanks Chef Billy!