Green Beans with Pine Nuts

Green Beans with Pine Nuts is an easy and healthy recipe that will make a great side dish for any main course!  It’s a perfect and delicious way to add something green and healthy for your dinner!

Combining green beans with garlic and pine nuts is one of the best and most delicious ways to serve them!  Try this flavorful recipe and it will quickly become a family favorite side dish!

This basic recipe will impress you with its simplicity.  Green beans with pine nuts is a simple combination that will pair well with any type of the main dish, whether it’s beef, pork, lamb, duck, or chicken.  For example, serve green beans with creamy chicken thighs or Hasselback chicken.

Variations and Substitutions

This is a GREAT base recipe for simple green beans.  It comes together quickly, the recipe steps are easy, and many ingredients can be omitted altogether or replaced with something else similar.  The recipe is versatile and easily adjustable to what you have available on hand.

• Nuts.  While pine nuts is an excellent choice here, you can easily use many other types of nuts, including pecans, cashews, or slivered almonds.  Make sure to lightly toast the nuts for the best flavor.  You can also omit the nuts altogether!
• Don’t like nuts?  Not a problem!  Use pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds instead.  I also prefer to lightly toast them before adding to the green beans.
• Cheese.  While grated Parmesan cheese provides amazing flavor, saltiness, and texture to this recipe, you can easily replace it with other cheeses.  Use Asiago, Pecorino Romano, goat cheese, or feta cheese.  If you prefer not to use the cheese, omit it altogether.
• Olive oil.  This is THE RECIPE to use high-quality olive oil.  The simplicity of these green beans will showcase the flavor of high-quality olive oil.   If you don’t like or don’t have olive oil, use butter instead.

How to cook green beans

• Boil. If you like softer green beans, bring a large pot of water to boil, add salt and green beans and boil them (on medium heat) for 5 minutes.  Drain.
• Blanch.  If you prefer crunchier green beans, bring a large pot of water to boil, and boil green beans for about 1 or 2 minutes until a little tender but still crunchy.  Drain.

What goes well with green beans?

• Vegetables.  Many types of vegetables taste amazing when combined with green beans.  These include potatoes, onions, carrots, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, tomatoes.  Add these cooked veggies to the green beans, season with salt and pepper, and you will have a wonderful and satisfying meal!
• Mushrooms.   Various mushrooms will pair well with green beans.  These include portobello, Bella mushrooms, shiitake, oyster mushrooms.
• Bacon.  Cooked and chopped bacon will add lots of flavor to the green beans and pine nuts!

Main courses to serve with green beans

Green beans with pine nuts are such a basic combination of ingredients that they will go well with pretty much any dinner!  Here are some ideas:

• Chicken.  Green beans pair well with all types of chicken, whether it’s grilled, baked, or roasted.  Try this zucchini chicken bake or buffalo chicken.
• Duck is another excellent meat that works beautifully with green beans.  Try roast duck or duck breasts with cranberry sauce for dinner.
• Pork is a fantastic choice as a main dish for green beans.  Check out creamy pork chops with mushrooms and bacon or pork tenderloin with apples and plums.
• Lamb works so well with green beans flavorwise.  Try lamb chops with mustard sauce.

Other green beans recipes

• Garlic Green Beans with Parmesan is a basic side dish with lots of flavors, including lemon zest, garlic, and olive oil.
• Garlic and Bacon Green Beans is an easy and delicious way to prepare green beans for the holiday menu.

5 from 7 votes

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Green Beans with Pine Nuts

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

20 mins

 

Green Beans with Pine Nuts is an easy and healthy recipe that will make a great side dish for any main dish! This simple combination will pair well with beef, veal, pork, lamb, duck, or chicken. It's also a fantastic side dish for salmon, trout, scallops, and shrimp. Green beans are one of the best sides for a family weeknight dinner!

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 230 kcal

Author: Julia

Ingredients

• 1 pound green beans fresh, rinsed, ends trimmed
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice freshly squeezed
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese grated
• 1/3 cup pine nuts lightly toasted
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper coarsely ground

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil, add green beans and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. Drain the beans.

2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add minced garlic and cooked green beans.

3. Saute on medium heat for about 2 minutes, stirring.

4. Remove from heat. Add freshly squeezed lemon juice and stir.  Add grated Parmesan cheese and stir. Top with lightly toasted pine nuts. Season with more salt, if needed. Season with coarsely ground black pepper.

Nutrition Facts

Green Beans with Pine Nuts

Amount Per Serving

Calories 230 Calories from Fat 162

% Daily Value*

Fat 18g28%

Saturated Fat 4g25%

Cholesterol 9mg3%

Sodium 354mg15%

Potassium 336mg10%

Carbohydrates 12g4%

Fiber 4g17%

Sugar 4g4%

Protein 8g16%

Vitamin A 880IU18%

Vitamin C 17mg21%

Calcium 198mg20%

Iron 2mg11%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.