Sautéed Green Beans and Shallots

These sautéed green beans and shallots are one of our favorite fall and winter veggie side dishes. The beans are crisp and vibrant green in color, so not only are they a beautiful side dish that pair with just about anything, they also take a pretty bland vegetable and turn it into a flavor bomb, as the crispy shallots add a bacony flavor to the green beans. Every time I make these beans for family and friends they rave about how tasty the beans are. Steve hated green beans until he tried them cooked this way. I think you could say that like my kale salad, they turn a green bean hater into a green bean lover. 

Blanching the beans is about as foolproof as it gets, as it helps ensure that you have bright green, properly cooked green beans.  It’s also a great time saver, as you can blanch the beans well ahead of when you actually need them, and then right before you’re ready to serve, just toss them in a pan to warm up, and you’re good to go.  I use this technique anytime, I have a lot of cooking to do at the last minute. 

I love that you can blanch the green beans ahead of time, so when it comes to dinner, all you have to do is sauté up the shallots until crispy and then toss in the green beans to warm them up. I doubled the below recipe and served these up for Thanksgiving dinner and it was super easy, as I didn’t need to worry about oven space and since I blanched the green beans ahead of time, they only took 10 minutes to cook up. I also love pairing these green bean and shallots with my roasted butternut squash and red onion and the flavors work beautifully together. Toss in some quinoa and tahini and you have yourself a dinner! 

I hope these green beans and shallots will become your new go-to side dish. 

Sautéed Green Beans and Shallots

• 1 pound green beans, ends removed
• Celtic sea salt or kosher salt for the water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced (see photo below)

Below is a picture of 2 large shallots, so you could see the approximate size, as people always seem to get confused about the sizing of shallots.

Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a rolling boil. I use my dutch oven for this, as 1 pound of green beans takes up a lot of space in the pan. I use kosher salt here, as it’s cheaper than my Celtic sea salt, and I’m just using it to salt the water.

While the water is coming to a boil, prepare an ice bath by filling a large bowl with cold water and some ice.

Add the trimmed green beans to the boiling water, making sure to push the beans down into the water, so all of the beans get submerged. Cook for exactly 2 minutes. You will notice that the beans will get more vibrant in color as they cook. 

Using a mesh spatula, or skimmer, remove the beans from the boiling water and immediately transfer them to the ice bath. The ice bath shocks the beans and stops the cooking process and helps set the bright green color. Once the beans are cool, drain, wrap them in a paper towel, or towel to dry, and set aside if using right away.  If you’re blanching the beans ahead to use for later in the day, or the next day, dry them, and then then wrap them in a paper towel and store in a resealable bag in the refrigerator.

Peel and slice your shallots into thin slices, set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet set over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden and crispy, roughly 4-6 minutes. We like crispy shallots, as they taste like bacon bits, but feel free to cook them less, if you’re not a fan of crispy shallots.

Add green beans to the pan, turn down the heat to low, and toss everything together for a couple of minutes, until warmed through. Serve immediately.

They’re easy and effortless, and will turn any green bean hater into a green bean lover. 

If you love these beans, then you need to try my sautéed broccolini and shallots.