Perfect air fryer green beans

Air fryer green beans are tender, flavorful, and the perfect year-round veggie side. Make them with farm fresh green beans all summer long, and add fried onions for a lighter, vegan green bean casserole around the holidays.

Air fryer green beans are a delicious way to make the most of summer's bounty. Make them with or without mushrooms and crunchy French fried onions.

Recipe notes

Before you begin cooking, you do need to wash and trim your green beans. You don't need to soak them before cooking, though, so don't worry about that.

To trim them, this southern gal prefers snapping off the ends, one by one, but you can save time by bulk trimming with a knife.

I prefer snapping them, because this helps you weed out any bad beans. A good green bean has a lovely snap to it. If the bean is floppy, I tend to toss it into the compost bin.

To make air fryer green beans, just toss together your green beans and sliced button mushrooms with a little bit of lemon juice, sage, salt, and pepper.

Use some spritzes of spray oil, then air fry for about 10 minutes at 400° F. Boom.

Make sure that you are using an oil spritzer, not an oil sprayer. You want something with a hand pump, because an aerosol oil spray can damage your air fryer's nonstick finish.

Serving suggestions

I like to serve these topped with a sprinkle of crispy, french fried onions to give a little nod to a vegan green bean casserole. It adds a little bit of crunch and extra umami flavor.

This makes a great side to go with tofu nuggets and mashed potatoes!

If you're making this for a holiday spread, add some mandarin orange cranberry sauce and miso gravy to round things out.

Substitutions

If you don't want to use mushrooms, just add an equivalent amount of extra green beans.

Instead of lemon juice, feel free to use rice vinegar or red wine vinegar.

Sage and green beans are lovely together, but you can omit the sage, if you don't want a holidays vibe. You can also replace the sage with more garlic powder or with other herbs/spices.

If you don't want to use the french fried onions, you can omit them. You can also substitute them with your favorite roasted nuts or seeds instead. Pumpkin seeds, sliced almonds, or cashews all work well.

Storage directions

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. If possible, store the fried onions separately.

To reheat, either add to a pan on the stove with a splash of water to warm through or reheat in the microwave.

You can freeze these in a freezer bag. They'll keep for six months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then warm in the microwave or on the stovetop.

📖 Recipe

Air fryer green beans recipe

Air fryer green beans are a tender, flavorful veggie side. Make these lemony green beans with or without savory mushrooms.

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5 from 3 votes

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Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Holiday, Vegan

Keyword: air fryer green beans, green beans

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: 99kcal

Author: Becky Striepe

Ingredients

• ▢ 24 ounces fresh green beans - trimmed
• ▢ 2 cups sliced button mushrooms - or 2 cups extra green beans
• ▢ 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• ▢ 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ▢ ¾ teaspoon ground sage
• ▢ 1 teaspoon onion powder
• ▢ ¾ teaspoon salt
• ▢ ¾ teaspoon black pepper
• ▢ spray oil - optional
• ▢ ⅓ cup french fried onions - for garnish, optional

Instructions

• ▢
  In a large bowl, toss together the green beans, mushrooms, lemon juice, garlic powder, sage, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Spray the mixture with oil from an oil sprayer, then toss again to coat. Transfer the mixture to your air fryer basket.
• ▢
  Air fry at 400° F for 10-15 minutes, shaking once or twice during cooking.
• ▢
  Serve topped with french fried onions, if you're using them.

Equipment

• Air Fryer

Video

Notes

If french fried onions aren't your thing, you can top these with nuts or seeds instead. Cashews, pumpkin seeds, or sliced almonds would all give you that little bit of crunch that the onions deliver. You can also omit the onions, if you want a lighter dish. Nutritional information includes the onions.

Sage and green beans are a lovely combo, but feel free to mix up your spices! You can simply omit the sage or replace it with other dried herbs, like Italian seasoning, chili powder, or more garlic powder.

The range in cooking times is because green beans can vary so much in size! Skinny beans will cook up more quickly, maybe even before the 10-minute mark. Fatter beans might need the whole 15 minutes to get cooked to preference. 

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Air fryer green beans recipe

Amount per Serving

Calories

99

% Daily Value*

Fat

 

3

g

5

%

Saturated Fat

 

1

g

5

%

Polyunsaturated Fat

 

0.3

g

Monounsaturated Fat

 

0.02

g

Sodium

 

488

mg

20

%

Potassium

 

538

mg

15

%

Carbohydrates

 

17

g

6

%

Fiber

 

5

g

20

%

Sugar

 

7

g

8

%

Protein

 

5

g

10

%

Vitamin A

 

1177

IU

24

%

Vitamin C

 

25

mg

30

%

Calcium

 

70

mg

7

%

Iron

 

2

mg

11

%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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