Pan-Roasted Green Beans With Golden Almonds Recipe (2024)

Always wonder why we have to boil, rather than steam, in so many of these recipes, as it is well known that boiling depletes far more of the flavors and nutrients than steaming, and steaming is faster and easier. I have always steamed rather than boiled, and found the results superior. Likewise, why cook almonds in oil to brown them, when they achieve a wonderful golden and crispy texture in the microwave, without all the extra added fat?

I"ve made a version of this for years -- If your green beans are young and tender, just put them right in the hot, hot pan with some olive oil, and let them char. Then, pour about 3 tablespoons of water and some crushed garlic into the pot-- it will steam up. Cover the pot, lower the heat to a simmer, and it will be done as soon as the beans cool down. You can add the almonds during the char, but the beans are great on their own. Also good adding diced tomatoes when you add the water.

Blanching the beans as opposed to steaming gives more control. They spend so little time in the water that the nutrients don't leach out into the water. Marcona almonds could also be a nice alternative to frying blanched almonds.

If you want to take this lovely recipe over the top, tear a ball of burratta over the hot dish, drizzle with a little more olive oil and sprinkle with Malden sea salt and a few minced chives.

Works fine, but what is with all the pots/pans in recipes? Just wipe out and use same pot.

I cooked the almonds and shallots as instructed. However, I then used a slotted spoon to remove the almond and shallot mixture and then reheated the same oil to cook the green beans. I just didn’t feel like using another pan and thought that the flavored oil would add to the taste of the green beans. It really worked well. I ran out of lemon, so I drizzled a bit of aged balsamic on the finished product. Clean plates all around!

I live in California. So... instead of boiling vegetables in water and then transferring them into ice water, I skip the whole thing... and just use microwave (only a few minutes). OK, maybe it is not as good as the original recipe - I will never know. But at least, I use a lot less water. For us the result is great! Then I put the beans in the pan and saute as usual.

If you enlarge the photo you can see they're definitely pine nuts. Theres a little nib on the end. Either sound delicious, though.

Quadrupled recipe for dinner party. Toasted slivered almonds in oven (3-4 mins). Took everything including blanched beans (2 mins), uncooked shallots, and everything else to party. Pan roasted beans there, adding shallots and pre-toasted almonds to the pan, at the end. Tossed beans in serving dish w zest, parsley, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Perfection!

This has become my go to side dish. I make it with truffle Marcona almonds and it's essentially crack.

All in all a great dish. However, I think the dish would benefit from less olive oil and more lemon. The next time I cook this, I'm going to try using 1/2 as much olive oil as called for while cooking the almonds, and twice the lemon zest and juice.

You are right, they are pine nuts. Although I like almonds very much, I think that the pine ones would fit better. As in the real italian pesto.

The almonds can brown very quickly -- keep an eye on them.

Beautiful, delicious and manageable to make with one alteration. As another reviewer suggested, I toasted the almonds and shallot in the same skillet I later used to blister the beans, and simply removed the nut mixture and wiped the skillet well in between. My kids, ranging in age from five to sixteen, all enjoyed it. Would use this treatment for other vegetables in the future. Could see this becoming a staple.

I made a larger quantity and used this as a vegan entree. Worked great. The almond topping really makes it. Didn't want to throw any vitamins down the drain, so boiled a small amount of water in a skillet, then added the beans and cooked them dry before the ice-down. Guessing that 2 minutes or so in the microwave with no water added would achieve the same result.

Wonderful! Made as written with only one change: we didn’t have almonds so we used pine nuts. Out of this world good.

Use very small pot to gently cook nuts in oil. Can make nut mixture in advance and beans then just warm and toss. Family loved it and nuts adhered better with oil and shape

Tasted Amazing! I cooked it for Thanksgiving and it was a favorite.

Sauté the shallots and almonds in butter and add some garlic. The olive oil and shallots weren't enough for me.

Ridiculously easy, absolutely delish!!

I made this two nights in a row, first using the given instructions, which resulted in overcooked beans. The second night, I didn't parboil them, and they came out better.

WOW! Ez breezy beautiful deliciousness. Will be putting this recipe on repeat

This didn’t do it for us. The green beans didn’t stay mixed with the almonds and shallots so you are fairly flavorless green beans and tried to grab some of the overly oily and heavy shallots and almonds. Not very tasty.

I’ve made this recipe frequently but it’s very time consuming. I’m wondering if it would be ok to actually roast the green beans instead of pan-roasting them?

Add burrata and chives to the green beans

Though my husband thought the dish was a bit greasy, everyone thought this was a great dish. I didn't have on hand a lemon, so I skipped the lemon zest. I doubled the recipe, more or less, and five of us ate all of it. I didn't measure the oil I used, but I'm pretty sure I didn't double the oil but stayed around the 3+ tablespoons. I have green beans coming out of my ears and harvested a decent batch of shallots, so I'll definitely make this again.

Excellent. Doubled for a main course meal for two! Great alongside quinoa and a little cheese. Mmm. Just used 1 pan, wiped out afrer frying the nuts to keep the leftover bits from burning before adding the beans.

Such a tasty way to make green beans! The first couple times I made this it seemed a little topping heavy, so I used a whole 12oz bag of green beans this latest time and thought that was a much better ratio. We usually use this as a side for Pasta al Limone, but could be a nice side for a lot of things!!!

Way too much olive oil! I wish I had read the comments before making this. Next time…

I made exactly as described. It was way too much work for the result. Next time I will go back to my tried and true - blanch the beans and serve with butter, lemon, toasted almonds and parsley