Name: Easy Roasted Green Beans with Garlic & Lemon
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 1½ pounds green beans, trimmed; 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided; 2 teaspoons honey (or maple syrup to make it vegan); Salt and pepper; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1 teaspoon minced lemon zest; 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice; 1½ teaspoons Dijon mustard; ¼ cup roughly chopped parsley or basil; ¼ cup toasted pine nuts or almonds (optional); Parmesan (optional for serving)

Roasted green beans with garlic and lemon—the perfect side dish recipe to have on hand! This 8-ingredients side dish is incredibly easy to prepare, make-ahead friendly and packed with flavor from seemingly simple ingredients.

Roasted green beans with pine nuts in a square white serving dish.

How to make perfect roasted green beans

There is a trick to making the best roasted green beans and it all lies in how you prepare them for the oven. To ensure the green beans cook in a timely manner, and cook through without burning, you first have to steam them a bit.

Stay with me.

This recipe steams the green beans on the baking sheet in the oven. By tightly covering the baking sheet with foil, the green beans end up steaming themselves. Voila!

After a quick 10-minute steam, they’re ready to roast. Remove the foil and continue to roast the green beans for another 10 or so minutes. It can’t get easier than this!

While the green beans are in the oven, whisk up a simple sauce made of olive oil, garlic, lemon zest and juice, and Dijon.

Immediately transfer the beans from the oven to the garlic sauce and toss to coat. It’s important to transfer the hot beans to the sauce quickly because the heat and steam from the beans partially cook the garlic, lessening its harsh flavor.

Finish the green beans with some toasted nuts and chopped fresh herbs, whatever you have on hand will work.

Can I use haricots verts?

Of course! Using haricots verts will elevate the elegance of this simple side dish. Keep an eye on the haricots verts as they roast. Since they are thinner, they may only need 8 minutes or so once uncovered.

Roasted green beans with pine nuts in a square white serving dish. Parmesan and pine nuts in the background

Roasted green beans for a crowd

These roasted green beans with garlic can easily be doubled, tripled, quadrupled even, to feed a large.

Tips for scaling up:

Depending on how many you are cooking for, you may need two or three baking sheets to fit all of the beans on.
Use a large bowl, or even two, for tossing the roasted green beans with the garlic-lemon sauce.

How many green beans you’ll need for:

8 people — 3 pounds
12 people — 4½ pounds
16 people — 6 pounds
20 people — 7½ pounds

Photograph of an Italian dinner spread, green beans in a white bowl, glasses of Negroni and plates of pasta with red sauce

How to serve roasted green beans?

These roasted green beans were developed to be a go-to, anytime side dish. With a simple ingredients list and approachable flavors, these roasted green beans go with all kinds of main dishes!

I love to serve roasted green beans with a cozy, hearty main dish. Here are some of my favorite main dishes I like to pair with roasted green beans:

Make it a full menu! Invite some friends over and throw an Easy Italian Dinner Party!

Here’s the full menu:

Main Dish: Pasta alla Puttanesca
Side Dish: Easy Roasted Green Beans with Garlic & Lemon
Cocktail: Chocolate Orange Negroni

Roasted green beans with pine nuts in a square white serving dish. Parmesan and pine nuts in the background

Easy Roasted Green Beans with Garlic & Lemon

Author: Lauren Grant of Zestful Kitchen
Prep Time: 5 minute
Cook Time: 25 minute
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4 cups (4 servings) 1x
Category: Side dish
Method: Roast
Cuisine: Italian

Print Recipe

Description

Crisp-tender, these easy roasted green beans are packed with flavor from garlic, Dijon and lemon. Your new go-to side dish!

Ingredients

Scale

1½ pounds green beans, trimmed
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 teaspoons honey (or maple syrup to make it vegan)
Salt and pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
¼ cup roughly chopped parsley or basil
¼ cup toasted pine nuts or almonds (optional)
Parmesan (optional for serving)

Instructions

Heat oven to 425° with rack set in lowest position.

Toss beans with 1 tablespoon oil, honey, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper until evenly coated; arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet.

Tightly cover baking sheet with foil and roast 10 minutes. Remove foil and roast until beans are tender and start to brown, about 12 minutes, stirring halfway through.

Meanwhile, whisk remaining tablespoon oil, garlic, zest, juice, and Dijon together in a large bowl.

Immediately transfer beans to bowl with oil-garlic mixture and toss to coat; season with salt and pepper to taste. Add herbs, if using, and toss to combine. Transfer beans to a serving dish, sprinkle with pine nuts, and serve.