Oven Roasted Green Beans are hard to resist, and like French fries, it’s almost impossible to eat just one. A heaping platter of beautiful, crispy green beans loaded with garlic and a squirt of lemon… there’s nothing better. Come spring, it’s the only vegetable you need on the table, as long as you make enough for everyone.
First things first: there’s no wrong way to enjoy a green bean. From fresh off the bush to canned within an inch of its life, somehow the beloved green bean still manages to taste fabulous without a lot of fuss. But if you’ve been steaming green beans for years, it may be time to consider oven roasting. It’s not just for cauliflower, you know!
This roasted green beans recipe takes advantage of a slightly higher oven temperature to ensure that the beans crisp up before getting soggy. Prep is minimal; all they need is a little garlic and some lemon slices before they go into the oven just long enough to get crispy and blistered.
This easy vegetable side dish is just perfect for Easter dinner, backyard barbecues, even weeknight dinners with the kids. Serve them up alongside burgers for a low-carb option, if you’re so inclined. No one will miss the potatoes. Really!
By the way, this recipe works just as well for edamame, sugar snap peas, haricots verts, or Romano beans.
Making Roasted Green Beans for the easiest Easter dinner ever? Click and slide the number next to “servings” on the recipe card below to adjust the ingredients to match how many you’re feeding—the recipe does the math for you, it’s that easy.
How do I make tasty Green Beans?
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. (To make things easy for travel to a potluck, combine the olive oil, garlic, and beans in a zip-top plastic bag and shake to toss. They can be roasted once you get to your destination.) Otherwise, gently toss the ingredients together on a baking sheet, distributing beans evenly.
- Squeeze the lemon halves over the beans.
- Bake until brown and blistered in parts, stirring occasionally. Because of the higher cooking temperature, this should be a quick process, about 10 minutes.
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve immediately.
Here are some more delicious flavors for your green beans:
Not only are green beans tasty, they’re versatile, too. Here are some other fabulous match-ups for the best string beans ever.
Pro-tip: When you’re roasting different types of vegetables together, it helps to keep the sizes uniform and to consider the density of what you’re roasting. Denser vegetables, like carrots and potatoes, take longer than green beans. It may help to par-cook them first, or add the beans later in the roasting process.
- Green beans with Parmesan cheese: add shavings of Parmesan or Pecorino cheese to your sheet pan for the final few minutes of roasting.
- Roasted Green Beans with bacon: roast beans and top with crumbled, cooked bacon and red pepper flakes.
- Roasted string beans with nuts: toss a handful of roasted slivered almonds onto the platter once the beans are served.
- Roasted Green Beans and mushrooms: include some shiitake mushrooms or smaller button mushrooms in the sheet pan; mushrooms and green beans are incredible (and so healthy) together.
- Roasted Green Beans with cherry tomatoes: halved or quartered cherry toms get sweet when you oven roast them. Add a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and stand back!
- Roasted Green Beans with garlic and ginger: finely minced ginger and garlic added to the beans for a little zing. Maybe a drizzle of sesame oil? Great with salmon!
- Roasted Green Beans and potatoes: par-boiled potato wedges roast right alongside the green beans, as long as the potatoes are thin enough. Or.. roast the potatoes first. Visit my recipe for Rosemary Roasted Potatoes for details.
- Roasted Green Beans and carrots: get the carrots started before you add the beans—see my recipe for Roasted Carrots for the details.
- Roasted Green Beans without garlic: simply leave out the garlic, or add thinly sliced shallots to the beans instead.
Dipping sauces for Roasted Green Beans
Treat ‘em like fries, then eat ‘em like fries, with a little something on the side:
- Nuoc Cham dipping sauce for a lighter, Vietnamese style dipping sauce
- Herbed mayonnaise
- Homemade Ranch Dressing
- Cilantro Mint Sauce
- Homemade Cheese Sauce
- Hollandaise Sauce (my favorite!)
- Balsamic Vinaigrette
- Homemade Aioli
- Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing
How do you make crunchy green beans?
The trick to crunchy beans is to roast them until they are just tender-crisp. A higher oven temperature helps keep the beans crispy, too; as long as you don’t overcook them, they should get nice and crunchy.
Lower oven temperatures create more steam, with can turn the beans soggy in the oven before they have a chance to crisp up.
No matter what, keep your eye peeled and give them a stir halfway through roasting.
Roasted Green Beans Recipe
- 1 pound green beans trimmed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 lemon halved, plus more for slicing (optional)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil for easy cleanup.
- On baking sheet, toss green beans with olive oil and garlic. Squeeze lemon halves over beans. Slice lemon halves and add to baking sheet, if desired.
- Roast until browned and almost tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
I love roasted green beans, this recipe is so simple! I make these for meal prep all the time.
My go-to recipe after I pick all the green beans from my garden. So great with just a little bit of lemon and salt! Sometimes I add parmesan too….
These were great!
Glad you liked them, thanks Angie!
Ohh! Love green beans. I’d also try it with asparagus.
I have a crowd coming over for dinner tomorrow and I just got a basket of green beans at the farmers market for our side. This recipe made me so happy! It looks so easy and I don’t have to worry about another pot on the stovetop. Thanks!
Hooray Diane, thank you so much! Sometimes you need space in your oven, sometimes you need fewer pots on the stove. Glad this one worked out for you. :)
I’m a sucker for any vegetable that’s oven roasted. I was just saying I don’t care if it’s hot out– I’m roasting vegetables!! This looks so simple and the flavors are perfect. Gorgeous.
I really love this recipe, Meggan. I truly believe that good cooking is as much about good ideas as it is good recipes, and this is both a good idea AND a good recipe!
I’m going to try this this week … probably with my classic baked salmon!
The perfect summertime side! I’m always looking for ways to make my veggies more interesting–thanks for the inspiration!
I don’t like green beans, but I do love them roasted and that changed it for me. I can’t believe I’d been eating them wrong all my life, love this recipe.
I love roasted veggies! I don’t think I’ve tried doing green beans yet, but once I get back to where I have an oven I will be trying them. Great idea!