Green Beans with Bacon is a simple holiday side dish that your guests will love. Fresh green beans are sautéed in olive oil and then tossed with crispy bacon, garlic and butter. These are perfect for Thanksgiving or the Christmas season. 

    

GREEN BEANS WITH BACON 

Tis the season for side dishes. When the holidays roll around I am always on the look out for new side dish ideas that I can serve my guests.

Green beans are always a favorite but these Green Beans with Bacon are a nice change to traditional green beans. Fresh green beans are cooked and then tossed with garlic, cooked bacon and butter. 

There are many types of green beans to serve at the holidays from Green Beans with Toasted Almonds to Southern Style Green Beans to just steamed green beans. I personally love the addition of the crispy bacon to this side dish, creating a savory flavor with the green beans. 

WHAT ADDITIONS CAN I ADD TO MY GREEN BEANS?

Aside from the bacon I also love adding other ingredient so this side dish. Some of my favorites include brown sugar, crispy or fried onions, diced tomatoes and shallots. 

CAN GREEN BEANS BE MADE AHEAD?

You can make your green beans ahead of time and then store them in the fridge for a few days. Cook them until just tender, rinse under cold water or do an ice bath and dry them with paper towels until they are completely dry. Store them in the refrigerator in a sealed container or bag. I would then add the bacon, garlic and butter when you are ready to serve and just heat everything in a skillet. 

HOW TO COOK FRESH GREEN BEANS 

First you need to determine what kind of green bean you are using. There are the regular green beans or Haricots verts are a smaller, thinner French variety. The french variety will cook in about half the time of the regular green beans. First you want to rinse the green beans and remove the stem and then ends. You also can use canned or frozen if you don’t want to use fresh. 

From here you have some options for cooking including sautéing, roasting or steaming them.

STEAMING: Add a small amount of water to a pot and add the green beans along with a lid. When you bring them to a boil the lid will help capture the steam and cook the green beans. You don’t want to overcook them so once they are bright green and slightly tender pull them off. If you have a double boiled or a steam basket that works great too. 

Once the green beans are steamed you would then heat olive oil in a large skillet and sauté the garlic. Then add in the green beans and the cooked bacon. 

SAUTÉING: You can also sauté the green beans by heating olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the green beans and cook, until they are bright and just tender, about 5 yo 7 minutes. From here you can add in the garlic and the cooked, chopped bacon to finish them off. 

ROASTING: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle olive oil, salt and pepper on the green beans and roast until the beans are slightly shriveled, about 20-25 minutes. This version will create a softer green bean. Here is a great recipe for roasted green beans. 

HOW TO PREPARE GREEN BEANS WITH BACON

1. Start by washing the green beans and pulled end and stems off of them. 
2. Choose your method to cook the green beans. I like to steam my green beans so I go ahead and do that and then quickly rinse them in cold water so they don’t continue to cook. 
   Then heat olive oil in a large skillet and sauté the garlic.
3. Add the bacon and cook until crispy. Remove the bacon and place on two paper towels to remove the grease. Chop the bacon and add it back to the skillet.
4. Add the green beans and the butter. Heat the green beans with bacon for about 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve warm. 

THESE KITCHEN ITEMS ARE HELPFUL IN THIS RECIPE:

Double Boiler 

Cast Iron Skillet 

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