Quick Ways to Doctor Frozen Green Beans

Quick Ways to Doctor Frozen Green Beans ♥ AVeggie Venture.com, a collection of easy ideas.
Today's "unrecipes", seven quick ideas for turning a bag of frozen green beans plus on-hand ingredients from your fridge and pantry into something your family will love (inhale?!). If you stockpile frozen green beans, just cook the beans with plenty of salt, then add simple flavors and textures to turn them into something brand-new and delicious!

Real Food, Fresh & Flexible. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Low Carb. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Vegetarian. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real. Naturally Gluten Free. Whole30 Friendly.


How to Season Green Beans With Pantry Ingredients: Never the Same Twice

After Christmas, I stocked the freezer with no-fuss no-muss frozen vegetables. Within days, I got bored by just plain ol' frozen green beans so decided to spice them up. After a few days, wow, was I ever amazed at how many different ways the beans could be turned into something special using on-hand ingredients, mostly condiments from jars and bottles already in the fridge and pantry. My mom called this "doctoring" ... simple changes to a food to make it taste better.

So this list is no recipe, per se – instead, it's encouragement to plumb the depths of your own refrigerator doors and pantries. If you've got an idea for doctoring green beans, please do leave a comment. We'll inspire one another!





QUICK WAYS to DOCTOR FROZEN GREEN BEANS


Cook the Beans First Follow the package instructions but for best results, use plenty of water and salt the water generously. After draining, I like to return the cooked beans to the still-hot pot with the heat on high, to remove some of the excess water. Then ... start doctoring.

#1 Beans with Mayo & Soy Sauce Toss cooked beans with about 1 tablespoon mayonnaise and 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce.

#2 Beans with Peanut Butter & Soy Sauce Toss cooked beans with about 1 tablespoon peanut butter and 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce (or just plain crunchy peanut butter).

#3 Beans with Orange Toss cooked beans with 1 tablespoon frozen orange juice concentrate.

#4 Beans with Lemon & Honey Toss cooked beans with a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, a half tablespoon of honey. Season with lemon pepper.

#5 Beans with Popcorn Oil Toss cooked beans with a half tablespoon of flavored popcorn oil. Yum!

#6 Beans with Horseradish Sauce Toss cooked beans with a tablespoon of sour cream and a half tablespoon of horseradish.

#7 Beans with Mustard Toss cooked green beans with a spoonful of good mustard. (Many thanks to Elizabeth, the Canadian food blogger from Blog from Our Kitchen for this tip! She likes a coarse mustard.)

More Ideas from Readers: These Sound So Good!

Toss the beans with with muhammara (Middle Eastern condiment made with walnuts, roasted red pepper, lemon juice, garlic, pomegranate juice).

Toss the beans with pretty red pimiento for festive occasions.

Toss the beans with a little chicken broth, diced onion, diced, fresh or canned, tomatos. Yum ...

Toss the beans with a mix os horseradish, a little bit of mayo and worcestershire sauce.

Toss the beans with a vinaigrette made of balsamic vinegar and chopped slow-roasted tomatoes

Toss the beans with a little grated fresh nutmeg for great flavor.

Smother the beans with bacon and onion.

Toss the beans with lemon juice and toasted sliced almonds! And some fried onions! Heavenly!

Roast the beans tossed with minced garlic, lemon juice and a bit of olive oil.

Combinations We Didn't Like

Green beans tossed with black bean sauce







Still Hungry?



More Favorite Green Bean Recipes

~ Falling In Love with Green Beans: Favorite Recipes ~
~ Roasted Green Beans with Rosemary & Walnuts ~
~ Chilled Green Bean Salad with Rosemary & Garlic Oil ~
~ "Best Ever" New Potatoes & Green Beans ~
~ World's Best Green Bean Casserole ~
~ more green bean recipes ~
from A Veggie Venture

~ Green Bean Garden Salad ~
~ Eggplant & Bean Thai Curry ~
~ Make-Ahead Fresh Green Bean Casserole ~
~ more green bean recipes ~
from Kitchen Parade




Looking for healthy new ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of super-organized quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables. Join "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg to explore the exciting world of common and not-so-common vegetables, seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special.

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2007 & 2020


Alanna Kellogg
Alanna Kellogg

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

Comments

  1. Great collection of easy ideas to jazz up green beans. For some reasons, that's one vegetable I don't use that often, but I love some of these ideas, especially the chunky peanut butter!

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  2. Wow, Alanna, you've really gone to town. Green beans with muhammara (Middle Eastern condiment made with walnuts, roasted red pepper, lemon juice, garlic, pomegranate juice) is also good.

    But we pretty much stopped at the grainy mustard (simply because we loved it so much).

    About the black beans. If you get dried fermented black beans (Chinese grocer should have some) and you stir-fry the green beans with a bit of garlic, green beans with black beans is delicious.

    -Elizabeth


    P.S. Thanks for the link!
    P.P.S. We sometimes make green beans with pimiento for festive occasions. I'm guessing that simply tossing in a few pimientos to steamed green beans would be good too (and look great as well).

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  3. Toss with a little chicken broth, diced onion, diced, fresh or canned, tomatos. Yum..

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  4. This is just a combination of things that you already listed, but I mix together horseradish, a little bit of mayo and worcestershire sauce and put it on green beans.

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  5. I love fresh green beans, but I guess I'm spoiled these days, because unless beans are fresh or home-canned (not store-bought canned), they just don't taste very good to me.

    But your green bean ideas will work well for fresh ones and home-canned ones, too! So thanks.

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  6. Green beans with a vinaigrette made of balsamic vinegar and chopped slow-roasted tomatoes, which we all have in the freezer!

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  7. My favorite recipe for fresh green beans is roasted green beans that I got from a veggie cookbook. You just brush the green beans with oil and put on 425 for 15 minutes (shake at 7 minutes or so). Once they're brown pull them out and add a little bit of salt. These are excellent, like green bean fries! I'm trying to figure out how to make homemade green bean casserole minus the condensed mushroom soup. I'm guessing some combo of sour cream and mushrooms.

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  8. Alyssa ~ By accident perhaps but you've happened onto the home of the World's Best Green Bean Casserole!

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  9. Karen said...
    grate a little nutmeg for great flavor. I like the idea of a nut butter (my hero is allergic to peanuts) so I'll use cashew butter.

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  10. Alanna's right Alyssa - it most definitely is the World's Best Green Bean Casserole! I made for Thanksgiving this year and my family was floored! Very, very good.

    I, um, like smothered green beans with bacon and onion. I'll leave it to you to look it up. :)

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  11. THANK YOU! Many times I'd wished I could have a few different 'seasoning' ideas for green beans. In the summer, I usually just toss my fresh green beans with butter and either fresh savory or fresh tarragon.

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  12. lemon juice and toasted sliced almonds! also, if you're not concerned about calories, adding some fried onions to that mix is heavenly.

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  13. Excellent ideas!!! I must try the peanut butter and soy sauce. I like to make them with minced garlic, lemon juice and a bit of olive oil, roasted in the oven.

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  14. Thanks for the casserole recipe! I'll have to try this with the frozen (fresh from the farmer's market this summer) I have in my freezer. If i had looked I might've found this. duh!

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  15. I love having quick veggie ideas! My problem with frozen green beans, though, is that they always taste so watery. Even when coated in some sauce, when I bite into the bean, it seems to squirt out water, and both DH and I find it yucky. But I would love to find a way around this problem so that I can use frozen ones more often!

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  16. Zoe ~ Yes, frozen green beans are definitely 'wet'. What about steaming them? or cooking in a dry covered skillet? It would be worth a try.

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  17. I just wanted to say that I tried frozen green beans, heated in the microwave and tossed them with the peanut butter and soy sauce and it was absolutely delicious! Thanks for the idea!

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Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe, whether a current recipe or a long-ago favorite. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. ~ Alanna