Green beans make a delicious addition to any table, but pair that with crispy bacon and you’ve got yourself a side dish that can function as a whole meal. Quick and easy, make it for lunch, dinner, or meal prepping for the week, you are going to love the flavors these Green Beans with Bacon have to offer.
Ingredients
You only need a handful of simple ingredients to make this flavorful side dish. All are easily found at your local grocery store.
- Green Beans: I recommend using fresh green beans as they are the star of the dish. However, if you need to substitute, you can with either frozen on canned green beans.
- Bacon: I recommend using thick-cut bacon cut into small pieces. It is easy and fuss free to make bacon in the oven.
- Onion: A white onion or yellow onion sliced super thin with all the perfect flavor without being too bold.
- Cheese: For this recipe, I used creamy burrata cheese which I believe really balances out the dish.
- Delicious Greens: There is nothing better than fresh herbs in a dish. For this recipe I used both fresh mint and basil.
- Lemon Juice & Zest: The juice from 1/2 a lemon mixes perfectly with the green beans. A squeeze of lemon juice and zest give very different lemony flavors- adding both gives the best balance.
- For Cooking: Kosher salt and pink peppercorns to taste.
Variations
There are plenty of ways got you to make these green beans with bacon your own. But here are a few of our favorite ways.
- Cheese – Instead of using burrata, you could use parmesan cheese or any other cheese you’d prefer. Fresh mozzarella cheese or goat cheese are good options too.
- Spicy – You can take the spice level up a notch by adding some crushed red pepper flakes.
- Sweet – If you want to sweeten the fresh beans up a bit, try adding some brown sugar or honey into the mix.
- Garlic – Adding some minced fresh garlic would add so much flavor to this already great side dish.
- Bacon – Instead of using thick cut, you could use regular bacon or even turkey bacon if you’d like.
How to Make Green Beans with Bacon
This side dish comes together in just 20 minutes, but looks super fancy. Here is how you make it…
- Cook the bacon. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook for 5-6 minutes, until crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan and drain on paper towels.
- Drain the excess fat. Pour out excess fat from the pan, leaving about 1 tablespoon.
- Cook the onion. Add the onion to the pan and cook for 6-8 minutes or until translucent and slightly caramelized.
- Cook the green beans. Add the green beans to the pan along with 2 tablespoons of water or chicken broth. Season the green beans with salt. Cook the beans, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes and bright green. Just before removing from the pan, mix in the lemon juice and half the basil and mint.
- Serve. Transfer the green beans with bacon and onions to a serving dish. Top with bacon, remaining herbs, torn burrata, and pink peppercorns.
How to Prepare Green Beans
Before cooking you are going to want to prepare your green beans.
If you are using fresh green beans (after washing them), you are going to want to snap off the stem end. Depending on where you bought your green beans, this may already be cut off/detached. If your green beans still have them attached, just snap off the very end of the stem of each green bean.
If you don’t feel like snapping them off one by one, you can line them up and cut them off with a knife. This is much faster.
Tip: Snapping the ends off green beans is a great activity to give kids who want to help in the kitchen!
However, you don’t have to cut the ends off if you don’t want to. You can leave them stem on the green beans and bacon and eat them if you’d like. The reason the stems are cut off is mostly aesthetic. However, the stems can also be hard and uncomfortable to eat. You can choose to leave the stems on and even eat them and it would be completely safe!
Canned vs. Raw Green Beans
Nothing beats the texture, flavor, and crispness of fresh green beans for this green beans with bacon recipe. However, if you need a substitute, I recommend using frozen green beans before canned.
Admittedly, frozen green beans are not as good as fresh, but they’re miles better than canned ones. The nice thing about frozen green beans is that they’re quick frozen and uncooked. What this means is they retain that beautiful green color and also the nutrients.
Green beans, in general, are best consumed cooked rather than raw.
Storage and Freezing
How to Store
The best way to store leftover green beans with bacon is in an airtight container or covered in plastic wrap for up to one week. Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave .
Can I Freeze Green Beans with Bacon?
We do not recommend freezing this recipe after it has been cooked.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you are unfamiliar with pink peppercorns, you may be surprised to learn, they are not actually pink! Pink peppercorns are red in color and adds great color to whatever you are making!
In terms of flavor profile, pink peppercorns are similar to black pepper but much milder, a tiny bit sweet, and highly fruity.
Burrata is an Italian cow milk cheese made from mozzarella and stracciatella. The outer casing is solid mozzarella cheese, while the inside is a loser stracciatella and cream.
It stays together in a jiggly ball, but when you cut it open, it oozes a little like the yolk of an egg. The umami flavors of this are wonderful with fresh salads and citrus.
More Vegetable Side Dishes
Tired of the same old side dishes? Here is a list of some of our favorites that we know you’ll love too.
Green Beans with Bacon
Equipment
Ingredients
- 8 ounces thick cut bacon , finely diced
- 1 white onion , very thinly sliced
- 2 pounds fresh green beans
- coarse kosher salt , to taste
- 1 lemon , juice & zest
- 1/4 cup fresh basil , finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh mint , finely chopped
- 1 burrata cheese ball
- pink peppercorns* , to taste
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook for 5-6 minutes, until crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan and drain on paper towels.
- Pour out excess fat from the pan, leaving about 1 tablespoon.
- Add the onion to the pan and cook for 6-8 minutes or until translucent and slightly caramelized.
- Add the green beans to the pan along with 2 tablespoons of water (or chicken broth). Season the green beans with salt. Cook the beans, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes. Just before removing from the pan, mix in 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and half the basil and mint.
- Transfer the green beans and onions to a serving dish. Top with bacon, remaining herbs, torn burrata, fresh lemon zest and pink peppercorns.
- If you've tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was in the comments or ratings!
Nutrition
My hubby and son love this recipe! Such a delicious and easy side for dinner. Definitely remaking this recipe! The flavor is so delicious and very tasty!
I love this recipe! The bacon and onion added fantastic flavour to otherwise boring green beans! I need to find a shop that sells some burrata (my small local shop didn’t have it) for the next time I make this, it sounds amazing!
Green Beans and Bacon is such an amazing classic side. I never thought about adding mint and basil but I enjoyed this flavour variation a lot. I made it with some marinated lamb chops and it was fantastic!
Adding bacon to these green beans was brilliant! It just took them to another level and made the perfect side dish!
bacon and green beans are best friends forever!! wonderful recipe!!