A simple green bean stir fry with garlic and ginger. Healthy and delicious! Adjust the ginger and garlic to your liking. Eat with rice ^_^

This is one of our favorite way to cook green beans.
Why? Because it's:
- Simple - Takes less the 15 minutes from start to finish.
- Fresh - Using only a few ingredients really lets the green beans shine.
- Healthy - We use ginger and garlic for flavor and just a minimal amount of oil.
And most importantly...it's onolicious ^_^
I make Garlic and Ginger Green Beans often for lunch on my own. It's a true one-pot dish (we stir fry and steam in the same saucepan).
Just prepare a cup of rice in the rice cooker. Whip up this dish. Then eat! It gives all the satisfaction of a comforting homemade meal but is so easy to put together.
When serving this at dinner, I usually add a meat side (like Shoyu Chicken or Mochiko Chicken).
Ingredients
Here's what you'll need to prepare this easy green bean stir fry.
Start with the 1 main ingredient:
- Green Beans
Add 2 aromatics:
- Garlic - Feel free to use more/less. My mom likes to use double the garlic recommended in this recipe!
- Ginger - Same goes for the ginger. Ginger and green beans are a pretty perfect pairing.
Season with 3 ingredients:
- Chicken Broth - The chicken broth is used to steam the green beans directly in the saucepan. You can just use water if you don't have chicken broth.
- Soy Sauce - We use both the Aloha and Kikkoman brand in Hawaii.
- Sesame Oil - We drizzle this on at the end, right before serving. It functions as a fragrant "finishing oil."
Method
Got all your ingredients together? Great!
As for cooking equipment, all you need is a saucepan (this is truly one of those one-pot meals).
First thing you'll need to do is prepare the green beans. Do this by trimming off both ends of the beans. Wash and then side aside.
Add a bit of oil to the saucepan. Over medium-high heat, slide in the green beans and stir fry for 2 minutes.
Then slide in the garlic and ginger and stir fry for a minute more. (I know we typically add aromatics like garlic and ginger first when it comes to cooking. But in this case we want to add the green beans first because the ginger and garlic will burn if we don't.)
You want the ginger and garlic to smell really good and start to take on that golden shade.
Then it's time to steam! Steam directly in the saucepan by pouring in the chicken broth (or water) and soy sauce, and putting the lid on the pan. Steam for just a minute.
Remove the lid, add a splash of sesame oil. Stir and you are ready to eat!
Green Bean Recipes
This is a saucy green beans recipe. It's very different from blistered green beans (also called Sichuan green beans) where you get a charred exterior.
This recipe is noticeably light, delicately crisp. The garlic and ginger are gently cooked and feel very fresh. Some people also refer to this recipe as Chinese garlic green beans.
There's some sauce at the bottom of the dish, which I love to spoon over rice. If you want it less saucy, cook the dish for a bit longer after the steaming step, so that more of the liquid soaks up.
If you love green beans, make sure to also try the Chinese Sausage (Lap Cheong) and Green Beans. It's a similar but also very different dish that I ate frequently growing up. The lap cheong gives the dish so much flavor, as does a touch of oyster sauce.
What Kind Green Beans To Use
You can use any kind of green beans.
We end up using French green beans 99% of the time. These French green beans also go by the name Haricot Verts (which is just the French translation of "green beans.") It sounds fancy, but is not really.
You can find French green beans at many major supermarkets. They are sometimes also sold under the name, "French-style green beans" or "filet beans."
We prefer these beans because they are longer, slimmer and also slightly sweeter in taste.
Questions
It keeps for 2-3 days in the fridge, in a sealed container.
Microwave for 1-2 minutes. Or steam for 3-4 minutes.
No worries! You can use water if you don't have chicken broth. The dish will be slightly less flavorful but still very onolicious.
Garlic and Ginger Green Beans Recipe
See below and enjoy ^_^
Garlic and Ginger Green Beans
This easy green bean stir fry with garlic and ginger is healthy and delicious! Feel free to increase or decrease the amount of ginger and garlic to your liking. Crisp and savory, perfect with rice.
Ingredients
- ½ pound green beans
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 2-inch knob of ginger, minced
- ¼ cup chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
Instructions
- Prepare the green beans. Wash and trim (cut off the ends) of the green beans.
- Over medium-high heat, add a bit of oil to a saucepan and stir fry the beans for 2 minutes.
- Then add the ginger and garlic. Stir fry for another 1 minute.
- Pour in the chicken broth and soy sauce.
- Place a lid on the pan and let steam for 1 minute. Remove the lid. Finish with a drizzle of sesame oil.
- Stir and slide the green beans onto a serving plate. Eat with rice.
Mahalo for Reading!