Quicker, cheaper, and healthier than takeout: Chinese Garlic Green Beans are my favorite vegetable side dish when making restaurant-style Chinese food at home.
I love cooking traditional takeout or dining out types of food at home. It's cheaper, lighter, and generally ... better. I can also address a common problem my husband has when eating out at Chinese restaurants: vegetables.
I love many of the vegetables commonly found in Chinese restaurants across America, but when I moved to South Carolina I found that the restaurants here tend to stick to celery, bell peppers, and onions to supplement meat, and those really aren't my favorites. Particularly bell peppers. I HATE bell peppers. So I started looking for a good, easy side dish to make that would pack a ton of vegetables into a meal, but also have a punch of flavor to stand up to whatever kind of meat and sauce I could think up to serve.
Cue the flavor-packed ( but not spicy ) Chinese Garlic Green Beans! They are dirt cheap, easy to cook, and don't require a special trip to the fun but admittedly sketchy local Chinese grocer that always bullies me about using my credit card instead of paying with cash. Sorry, guys, but the last thing I want to do is carry a large amount of cash into a grocery store that is pretty much under the highway, in a part of town most known for its beauty supply shops, payday loan stores, and chrome rim rentals.
This Chinese green bean side dish is a near perfect replica of what can be found at PF Chang's too. Which is kinda hilarious, because it was a total accident ( as y'all know, I'm not much for "copycat" recipes ). I had their side dish AFTER I'd been making this one for years!
If you love green beans, you might want to try my Garlic Chicken and Green Beans Skillet or my Green Beans with Almonds , too!
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Garlic Ginger Green Beans
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon Toasted Sesame Oil
- 1 teaspoon Grated Fresh Ginger
- 1 teaspoon Minced or Pressed Fresh Garlic
- 2 Tablespoons Low Sodium Soy Sauce
- 2 teaspoons Sesame Seeds optional, garnish
- 10 ounces green beans
Instructions
- Cook the green beans according to package directions, but short the cooking time by one minute. ( So if you have fresh green beans, steam them like you usually would, just for one minute less. If you are using canned .... please don't ... but if you are, you can skip this step entirely. )
- In a large saucepan or wok set over medium high heat, add the green beans and the oil. Toss to coat.
- Once the beans are coated with the sesame oil, add the ginger, garlic, and soy sauce. Toss the beans with the ingredients for two minutes.
- Turn off the heat, and stir the ingredients for one minute more in the pan with the heat turned off.
- Serve warm, topped with sesame seeds.
Green beans are my all-time favorite vegetable... is that weird? I love new ways to cook them, too! Consider it pinned for later 🙂
Like I said on instagram, YUM. I've ben really craving asian veggies lately, so I'll add this to my list.