Green Bean Almondine - Easy Side Dish

Recipe: Green Bean Almondine Recipe »

This green bean almondine is a classic French side dish made with crisp tender beans, toasted almonds, garlic and buttery shallots. Quick, elegant and ready in minutes. Green bean amandine is perfect with roast meats, casseroles or weeknight dinners.

About Green Bean Almondine

Green Bean Almondine or Amandine features crisp tender green beans, shallots and flaked almonds cooked in a buttery garlic sauce. The beans are perfectly cooked and it is super easy to make. This simple French side dish goes really well with roast meats, stews and casseroles.

Why You'll Love Green Bean Almondine:

This is a great way to serve beans when they're in season.

We brown the butter so that it is toasty and nutty and enhances the flavour of the almonds and the whole dish.

I'll show you how to get that tender crisp texture that everyone loves so much!

Green Bean Almondine can be made partially ahead of time so that you can blanch the beans and then cool them and then make the sauce which takes around 5 minutes!

Video How To Make Green Bean Almondine

Video: How to Make Green Bean Amandine

Ingredients For Green Bean Almondine

Green Beans - Regular green beans or haricot verts are perfect for this.

Almonds - We use flaked almonds although a strong argument could be made for crunchy slivered almonds too!

Butter - Salted butter :)

Golden eschallot - These really vary in size so I'd choose one on the larger size, around 40-50g/1.4-1.7oz.

Garlic cloves - Large, fresh garlic cloves

Salt and black pepper - To finish.

Tips For Making Green Bean Almondine

1 - Avoid overcooking the beans. 2 minutes maximum in simmering water is all you need. Start timing from when you add them to the water and not when they come to the boil again.

2 - Some people like adding lemon to their green bean almondine. I prefer it without because I like the toasty flavour of browned butter.

3 - You can make green bean almondine vegan by using olive oil instead of butter to make it vegan.

Other green bean recipes to try next are: Chinese green beans with pork mince, Green bean and Halloumi Salad or Green Curry Meatballs with Green Beans.

Green Bean Almondine Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Serves: 4 as a side dish

Ingredients Needed

• 350g/12.3oz green beans, trimmed
• 30g/1oz butter
• 30g/1oz flaked almonds
• 1 golden eschallot (around 40g/1.4oz), sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• Salt and pepper

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 BLANCH - Put a large pot of water onto boil and once simmering, add the green beans and simmer for 1-2 minutes (1 minute for more crisp beans, 2 minutes for more tender beans).

Step 2 ICE - Have a large bowl of ice water ready. Drain the beans when done and add to the bowl of ice water. Once cooled, drain.

Step 3 SAUCE - Heat butter in a large, deep frying pan and add the almonds and sliced eschallot on medium heat. Cook until the almonds start to become golden brown, about 1-2 minutes. Add the crushed garlic and the drained beans and gently toss and cook for 45 seconds or until the beans are warmed through. Remove from heat and season generously with salt and pepper.

Note: some like to add lemon zest and juice to their green bean amandine but I prefer it without. If you want to add it, add it right at the end.

Personal Note

While these green beans are super quick to make, some things can take a lot longer to do. And recently we had to wait 4-5 months for something to be done at our house.

We had solar panels installed in our house a couple of years ago. It was great but only really helped during the day when the sun was shining. Unfortunately the cost of the solar battery was a bit much for us to install at the same time but I told Mr NQN that we needed to get a battery in the near future because late at night on a hot night all you need is aircon and weather is getting more extreme. In November he saw a great Black Friday deal on solar batteries so he signed up and left a deposit. I was so excited.

It came to the end of December and Christmas had taken all of our attention. I asked Mr NQN how the solar battery was going. He told me that he had missed their call but when he called them back they never answered. This happened all through January and February while we sweated at night. Mr NQN (bless him) never seemed bothered about them taking the deposit or not calling him back. Honestly sometimes his laissez faire attitude towards money scares me at times.

But not me, I was very hot and bothered (literally).

"Give me their number!" I said frustrated. I rang them and asked for the account manager and was told that he would call me back in 15 minutes max. I never heard from him. I tried again and nobody answered the phone. I could have sworn they must have blocked us.

I had to resort to the big guns. I went to the productreview website. In Australia, that's the best way to get any recourse with any business that has done you wrong. The ombudsman is slow but this site is quick and within a couple of hours of me writing a review and opting to mediate it instead of publishing the review, we got a call.

"We can do it this weekend!" they said. And within a week we had our solar batteries installed. It's funny how fast they can be if they are prompted! And being able to put on the aircon at night and use the power that your solar panels have produced is heaven.

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever used a review site to get a resolution? And what is your favourite way to eat green beans?