Years ago, I stumbled upon a Cook’s Illustrated article for the best green bean recipes. They included 3 or 4 variations, and all of them were good, but their take on Green Beans Almondine blew me away. I never knew a vegetable side dish could taste this fantastic! This classic French recipe is buttery, tangy, and crunchy all at the same time.
Here is my lightened version of theirs, and I think it’s just as delicious. This dish is pretty impressive and complex, thanks to a browned butter sauce and lots of toasted, buttery almonds. I make this year-round for dinner parties and people always ask for the recipe.
Green Beans Almondine
Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 1 pound green beans trimmed
- 1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 ounces slivered almonds
- 2 medium cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 2 medium shallots thinly sliced
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice from about 1 lemon
- kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- You have two options for cooking the green beans: if you want to keep them nice and green, boil them in salted water for about 2 minutes, then drain them and add to an ice bath. If this is too many steps for you, just add the green beans to your skillet with a couple tablespoons of water and cook over medium, covered, for about 5 minutes. Either way, set green beans aside while you make the sauce
- In a large skillet, over medium-low heat, add 1/2 tbsp butter, garlic and almonds. Cook until almonds are deeply browned but not burned, about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.
- Add 1 tbsp butter to same skillet along with shallots and garlic. Raise heat to medium and cook until shallots are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add browned almonds, lemon juice, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, and 2 tbsps water to sauce. Cook for another 30 seconds, then add in green beans. Increase heat to high and cook for 1-2 minutes, until green beans are heated through and coated with the sauce.
- Taste and season with more with salt and pepper to your liking.
Notes
Click here to determine your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe (if you are logged in to your WW app, it should calculate for you automatically). Serving size is ~ 1/2 cup.
WW Freestyle SmartPoints: 2 for 1/6 of the recipe, about 1/2 cup.
Meals like this have been saving my hide this summer with baseball every night! Love the addition of the beans! Pinned 🙂
Sunny days are amazing when you’re in the mood to get out and ENJOY life! But cloudy days are a good excuse to stay in and cook and snuggle 😉 Love how puffy and cheesy this quiche looks. yuuuuum!