Making Frozen Green Beans

I buy the great big bag of frozen green beans from Sams. My family's favorite way to eat them is when I saute them over fairly high heat in the pan that I just cooked dinner in (so that a little bit of the remaining seasonings from the pork chops, or chicken, or whatever, seasons the beans. Then I drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. That's it! They always compliment the main dish and are never rubbery because the cook fast on high heat. Another option is to steam them in an actual steamer, not in water in the microwave! Good luck-you've gotten many great suggestions already!

I just seen this on a cooking show. fresh GB's with each end snipped off and placed on a cookie sheet, and salt pepper and drizzel with Olive oil bake at 400 for 20 minutes. They are delicious.

Hi Y.,

Try putting the green beans in a casserole dish and add a can of Artichoke Hearts chopped or quartered. Sprinkle with Parmesan or Romano Cheese, Salt & Pepper, Red Pepper (optional). Top with Italian Bread Crumbs and drizzle with Olive Oil. Bake 350* for 15-20 minutes. That is if your picky 40 yr old husband likes Artichoke Hearts. My husband hates most vegetables but he likes spinach & artichoke dip and corn that's about it! Good Luck----J. C

I think fresh is the way to go with green beans unless you are putting them in a soup and cooking the heck out of them. One of my favs is buying fresh. You can snap the ends off while watching a show. Then drizzle olive oil and soy sauce and put under the broiler for a couple of minutes. Watch closely and I take mine out and shake them and little to make sure they are covered in the oil and sauce. You can cook them as long as you want. I like a little brown on mine. Good flavor. I love doing this with broccoli, too. It makes it crunchy. You cut up fresh broccoli (spelling?) and put it in a bowl with olive oil or canola oil and salt. Shake or stir so all is covered then spread it out on a baking sheet. Cook at 425 for about 20-25 mins. Again, depends on how you like it so try it a few times. I just eat this like popcorn. Love it.

I usually steam them - it helps with the texture. What I really like are the french cut green beans. I saute them in a skillet with either a tiny bit of olive oil or butter (you could even use Pam to cut calories). You can use some onions, bacon, ham, etc. for some flavor - just add the beans at the very end since they cook quickly, and season to taste. I really like them sauteed with onion, a little diced ham and add slivered almonds at the very end. Sounds weird, tastes delicious! Also, I use the Morton's Lite Salt which is 1/2 the sodium of regular salt. No one in my house has noticed I switched...LOL.

Y....I think that some vegetables just don't taste as good when they are frozen and green beans are one of them!! I also don't particularly like peas from the freezer...maybe the green color has something to do with it...lol.
Seriously...if you want to have some delicious green beans...either get the Blue Lake Canned Variety ( it's a variety of beans..not a brand name)...rinse the green beans several times....discarding the water that it is canned in. If you want to add a little bacon or onion to it...go for it...(You will need to let it simmer a while for the added ingredients to be good) or just add enough water to cover and heat it up.
Of course my favorite way of cooking green beans is fresh snap beans...yummy!!!
R. Ann

Hello Y.,

When my husband and I got married, my eating of veggies changed. You see, I was raised strictly on canned, he was raised on both canned and frozen. We decided to go with frozen... I had to get used to them, cuz I DID NOT LIKE THEM!!!

When we got married, I had a then six-year old daughter from my first marriage and I knew that she would be watching me to see how I reacted to the "new" veggies. I choked them down, did not like them in the slightest. My daughter didn't like them either, but with persistance, we all love them now.

We buy the Green Giant steamed frozen veggies. We don't have trouble with the green beans coming out rubbery. Our favorite is the sweet corn... YUMMO!!!

Hope this helps! ls

I use frozen veg for everything BUT green beans. I hate the rubbery texture and lack of taste. I stick to canned green beans or fresh beans, steamed with garlic, olive oil, s&p.

I buy french green beans (from Trader Joe's) which are very long and slender. Braising them in chicken broth infuses them with tons of flavor and they're super-tender.

Start by sauteeing a minced shallot (it's like a small, mild onion) in some olive oil. Add the bag of frozen green beans and a can of chicken broth (or your own home made stock made from bones for extra flavor and nutrition). Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes or until tender. Salt and pepper to taste.

These things get gobbled up with abandon at my house. Even the leftovers disappear from the fridge!

Hallo Y.!

Green beans are the one veggie that we also don't like frozen - they just aren't good or easy to eat. Fresh is great, if you have the time and extra money, but I have one other alternative. The major issue with canned veggies is the salt content, but I read that by thoroughly rinsing the beans you can actually cut the salt significantly or you can buy no salt added beans. I figure we are going frozen or fresh for everything else, and rinsed, canned green beans are an easy compromise. Just a thought! D.

I just made frozen green beans last night. I sauteed them in olive oil, a little salt, pepper and garlic powder. I like them crunchy so I don't cook them long but you can cook them until they're the right consistency for you. Yum, they were good and my 19 month old daughter loved them too!

Place 2 slices of uncooked bacon in the bottom of the pot before you start cooking them. And salt when you are about to serve.

Sounds like people have a lot of good suggestions...but my experience is that frozen vegetables are usually terrible. Why not buy fresh? Aside from peas, most veggies are not that much more trouble cooking from fresh. It's kind of sad to hear so many women say they only cook from frozen..or WORSE, from a can. Ugh.

Always steam frozen vegetables, for that matter steam all vegetables. They don't turn out mushy that way. I only buy C&W vegetables, they are the best and have the price to prove it. Still once a month Schnucks and Dierbergs have them on sale so you can get them reasonable.

As for after steaming melt butter add salt and pepper to taste and toss the green beans back in. I got this recipe from the executive chef from Tony's restaurant. Simple but good, even at age two my kids would eat them.

Good Morning Y., Forget Frozen G B's YUCKY. I haven't found one yet that has any flavor or nice texture yet. I steam and never boil veggies. GB's are still nasty that way.
Fresh GB's are the best but you normally can't find them now. So I stick with canned french cut.
The California blend mixed veggies are great for steaming and stir fry.

Hopefully we both can get some tips on how to make those GB's more appealing.
Best of Luck
K. Nana of 5

I was raised of can veggies and we switched to frozen for the same reason. I had to get used to all of them. For the green beans, you have to cook them longer to get rid of that waxy texture. When I first began with the frozen veggies I started to put butter on them to get a similar taste as canned but that sort of ruined the point. I found that cooking them longer made them more like canned veggies. I put them on to cook when I do the other dinner items on just above med. I also like to add onion and bacon to the green beans while the cook. My friend uses the dried onion and bacon bits to make doing this more convenient.

YES!!! It's not just me! But, luckily I discovered last week a solution to this dilemma! My mother-in-law brought over frozen green beans, but they were the "petite" green beans and they were awesome. Not rubbery at all. For my 2 year old I just put a little butter on them and served them right from the steamer, but for the rest of us I thawed them in the microwave in a dish with a little water and plastic wrap half over the dish. Then I spread them out on a cookie sheet, sprinkled a little olive oil and soy sauce and fresh lemon juice (or the lemon juice from the plastic lemon) and a whole bunch of sliced almonds and broiled them for about 10 minutes. They were awesome.

So, no matter how you prepare them, the "petite" green beans are my recommendation. Good Luck.

have you tried the green beans that come in a microwavable package? Steamfresh, or something like that? They don't turn out rubbery.

Sprinkle some Mrs Dash on them before you steam them. There are all kinds of salt free flavors. Another way that I make them when I am in the mood and don't care about the salt, is I but a beef bouillon (sp?) cube or two in the water when I steam them. Yummy!

Make sure you don't thaw them first, the excess water will ruin their texture. All frozen vegetables should be cooked over med-high heat from a frozen state.

Here's what I do, and my daughter now does the same thing because her family loves them too. In fact she can hardly make enough! When I make a roast, I put it in the crock pot and dump in water mixed with about a teaspoon of minced garlic, beef soup base and chicken soup base (about 2 c. of water with one heaping T. of each of the bases... same as bullion). Then, dump in the frozen green beans. Stir them around to get them into the water. Pour on more water to be about even with the top of the roast. I use a chuck roast usually. Let it cook all day in the crock pot. The beans absorb a lot of the seasoning, and are REALLY delicious. And, if you add potatoes and/or carrots, you pretty much have an entire meal in the crock pot for supper. You said you are very busy. This may be your ticket!