People don’t pay enough attention to the wide world of canned foods. You can add canned meats, seafood, and veggies to meals and side foods to make them taste better. A lot of the time, they don’t cost much and save you time because you don’t have to chop and cook each thing separately.
There is no better way to stock your pantry than with canned green beans. They are already cooked and ready to eat.Some green beans come in chopped form with the ends cut off so you don’t have to do any work. You can also buy whole green beans in cans.
When it comes to dried green beans, there are a lot of options. If you want to change the texture, fry them in extra-virgin olive oil (which is also a good way to improve the taste). You could add classic ingredients to these beans, like the garlic or almonds that are often used in fresh green bean meals. The same reasoning can be used for the canned form. These things will go well with green beans without taking over the dish. Some of these green bean mixtures go well with meats and other vegetables. You can also eat them on their own as a snack.
1. Cheese
When you add cheese to a dish, can anything go wrong? It’s an easy way to make canned green beans taste better, and there is no cheese that isn’t good to add. You can make a great weeknight dinner for the family with cheesy canned green beans.
The classic mozzarella can give it a stringy look, a nice cheese pull, and a flavor that isn’t too strong. When added to canned green beans, Parmesan, especially newly sliced Parmesan, can make them taste salty and make them look better.
It can look soft and pillowy if you cook the Parmesan cheese and then put it on top of the green beans. If you cook the Parmesan cheese with the beans, it will be crunchy and slightly brown. On top of the beans, shred some cheddar cheese and grill for a few minutes to melt and warm it. Add cream cheese to make it more smooth. It makes the beans feel rich without changing the taste. You can quickly improve any green bean meal by melting any cheese you like.
2. Butter
There are many kinds of butter that you can use to make your green bean dish more interesting, such as salted, plain, and herb-infused compound butter. The second choice can give your dish a lot of flavor; all you need is butter and herbs to make canned green beans taste better. Some people cook the beans in the butter, which makes them taste great and helps them fry up nicely.
You can add a pat of butter on top of baked green beans with other things right before serving so that it melts and runs down the beans.This can add to the taste and look of the dish, especially if you use a mixed butter with herbs (dill or parsley are great choices). Scallion can be used in creative ways, like adding them to compound butter, which goes well with green beans.
If you want to change the taste of regular butter, make some brown butter. It smells nutty. If you want to eat your green bean dish with nuts, like almonds, this works well. But green beans with butter are tasty on their own, and if you use salted butter, you may not need to add salt to the beans after cooking.
3. Seasoned flour
For a fried vegetable side dish, deep-fry green beans that have been coated in flour. It’s kind of like getting tasty fried fair food, but you can make it your own at home. Pour the water out of the can and cover it with a favorite flour mix. Whether you get the idea for your fried green beans from chicken fried steak or onion rings, coating them in flour can make them crispier than just frying them. After you make the batter, fry them until they’re nice and brown. To get them all the way crispy, either fry them in a pan or, even better, deep-fry them.
These are a tasty and crunchy side dish that goes well with meat or can be added to a salad for a nice change of texture. For fried foods, it’s important to season the flour layer because flour doesn’t taste very good on its own. To begin, salt and pepper work well. You could also add Cajun flavor, garlic powder, ranch sauce powder, or a seasoned salt.
4. Garlic
Many tasty foods get their flavor from garlic. In this case, garlic turns canned green beans into a dish that would be at home on a restaurant menu. Garlic is strong and spicy when it’s raw, so you should chop it up very small so that its sulfuric chemicals can be released while it’s cooked. When these chemicals are exposed to air, the smell and taste of the garlic come through, making the garlic last longer. You can fry pre-diced garlic that comes in a box and add it to the beans. This might be especially helpful if you only have one or two cloves and want to get the most out of them.
When garlic is roasted, it can taste almost like nuts. For people who don’t really like garlic, it makes the taste a little better by easing out the bite. Boil garlic and then mash it up. Add it to the green beans as you warm the dish up. If you use chopped garlic, this version is a bit more like a paste. It also takes less time to cook because the garlic is already baked.
5. Vinegar
You can add vinegar to more than just fish and chips or salad sauces. For a new taste, pickle canned green beans for a short time. Make your own sauce with vinegar, mustard seeds, fresh dill, and peppercorns to bring it all together. Put the dilly beans in the fridge. This is an amazing way to make something new out of canned beans. You could also use whole canned beans to make the pickled beans look more fresh.
Though there are many pickled vegetables, this one might not be as well known, since green beans are the vegetable you didn’t know you should be pickling. There is no need to wash or cut the ends off of the green beans when you use canned ones, which can take a lot of time. You can make canned beans into a tasty snack by adding white vinegar or apple cider vinegar. You can eat them by themselves or put them on a burrata board as a vegetable.
6. More beans
Adding other beans can be one of the easiest ways to improve canned green beans if you’re having trouble thinking of what to add. You can use canned green beans, garbanzo beans, and kidney beans to make a bean salad. You can use the canned types of all three. This means you don’t have to cook and boil any of the beans for hours on end to make them soft. You can make the beans taste better by adding black beans, cannellini beans, or any other kind of beans you like.
With these adds, the dish feels softer and creamier than when green beans are eaten alone, which can taste either sweet or bitter. To make an easy bean salad, drain off any extra water and mix the beans together. You can add other veggies, like bell peppers or corn, or herbs, like onions or parsley that have just been chopped. Make a jalapeño-lime bean salad with tomatoes and avocado to add some heat and sourness. You can also add rice or couscous to make it even more filling.
7. Fresh herbs
Another great way to make green beans taste better is to mix them with herbs. This can also add a fresh taste to canned beans. Put in something flavorful, like rosemary, thyme, or basil, while you heat up the canned green beans. In addition to adding more greens, they also add taste without making you do much more than chop. If you don’t have any onions on hand, chives can make something taste like onions.
Most of the time, fresh dill and green beans go well together, but tarragon can add a light anise flavor that will make your dish more interesting. These are some herbs that can help make your dish taste more fresh. They also work well with canned beans to make them taste better. You can heat the herbs in a pan with the dried beans, or you can add some herbs, like basil, after the beans are already hot and mix them in.
8. Pesto
Pesto is a rich sauce made from garlic, basil, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, and pine nuts. For those who want to save time, store-bought pesto with canned green beans might taste better than you thought. Instead of opening a jar of pesto and tossing it with green beans, add more flavor to store-bought pesto by adding red chili pepper flakes. This is just one way to boost the flavor. There are lots of easy ways to make canned and jarred foods taste better, and they’re not stupid. No one needs to know that you opened a can of beans and a jar of pesto.
Pesto in a jar tastes great, is easy to use, and lasts longer than pesto made from scratch, but you can always make it from scratch. There is a recipe for Ligurian pesto pasta that you can use with canned green beans to make a filling meal. The recipe calls for pine nuts, pasta, basil, and more. The pesto gives the green beans color and taste while covering them. Having pesto and green beans in your pantry is always a good idea.
9. Nuts
Adding nuts to your green beans will make them stand out. For a more even bite, use sliced nuts, crush them, or chop them up instead of whole nuts. Ina Garten likes to put roasted hazelnuts on top of her green beans because they make the beans taste earthy and nutty. Peanuts tend to add a lot of flavor to anything they touch, but hazelnuts aren’t as strong. The hazelnut adds more complexity, and you might want to try it.
A lot of people like to add almonds to food. For example, green bean almondine has a great rhyme in its name and a great taste. The crunchy, buttery nut goes well with the soft beans from a can. You can use sliced almonds, toasted almond slices, or just cut them up yourself. Packaged slivered almonds are a great choice if you want to save time. Pine nuts or peanuts would also work.To take it to the next level, quickly roast the nuts in a pan to give them some color, and then add the green beans to warm them up.
10. Lemon
Adding citrus to your vegetable recipes can really make them look better. A squeeze of lemon can give your can of green beans a boost. Fresh lemon is a little stronger than lemons in a bottle, and you can add some zest to make it even stronger.
You don’t have to go to the store to buy fresh lemons, though, because canned juice can also make green beans taste better. Some people might want to add the juice of one or two lemons per can of beans, but if you don’t want it to be too strong, you could just use half a lemon.
Put the green beans in a pan and add lemon juice. To make lemon garlic green beans, you mix a few things that will make canned green beans taste better. This is something you can put on the side of a juicy roasted chicken or mix with another veggie to go with any meal. Lemon’s sour taste can make your vegetables taste better, especially if you think the canned green beans need something extra.
11. Bacon
If you want an item that does two things at once, bacon is one of the best options. The crispy bits give the soft green beans a salty and delicious crunch. You can also fry these vegetables in the bacon fat.
Remove the bacon slices from the pan after cooking them, but don’t throw away the grease. Get the green beans out of the can, drain off the water, and cook them in the bacon fat. It makes it taste greatly smoked without adding any other ingredients.
Break up the bacon and add it to the beans after they are hot and fried. This is an easy but effective way to make canned green beans taste better. The beans taste like bacon grease because the bacon grease flavor seeps into the beans. You can make a great food to bring to a party by making green beans with crumbled bacon, onions, and garlic that taste like the ones at Texas Roadhouse. If you have extras, put them in the fridge. To warm them best, fry them in a pan instead of using the microwave, which could make them soggy. Do not eat bacon? Use turkey bacon instead of regular bacon. It won’t have as much grease, but it can still add a crunchy difference.
12. Cream of mushroom soup
You can eat cream of mushroom soup all year long. You don’t have to only eat green beans and cream of mushroom soup in the fall. We enjoy making green bean stew all year, but there’s something extra special about having it on a Tuesday in April. This simple and easy side meal is made with canned green beans and canned cream of mushroom soup.
You don’t need to add salt to your green bean dish because cream of mushroom soup already has a lot of it. You could choose dried green beans that don’t have salt added, or you could rinse them if they do. You don’t have to put fried onions on top of your stew, but you can if you want to add some style and a light crunch.
This might go well with turkey, but it also works well with chicken or ribs. It might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of this mix, but it tastes good anyway. Add grilled broccoli or asparagus to this dish for even more veggie goodness.
13. Extra-virgin olive oil
If you don’t know much about olive oil, extra-virgin olive oil usually has more flavor, whether it’s green, fruity, spicy, or something else. There is a reason for this: the oil from the olives is cold-pressed.
There are different tastes of extra-virgin olive oil depending on which one you use. There are also spiced or blended types of extra-virgin olive oil, like olive oil with basil, chili peppers, rosemary, and more. This is two ways to add ingredients to canned green beans that will make them taste better, since it’s really just one ingredient that’s been incorporated.
The olive oil also helps fry the green beans, which gives them a little crunch, which is nice since canned green beans are already cooked and soft. If you pan-fry or roast the green beans with olive oil, it can make them crunchier and add a mild oil taste. If you don’t have much time to make your bean dish, try this method. All you have to do is pour and fry—no cutting, mixing, or stirring is needed.
14. Potatoes
There is something reassuring about the wonderful starch in potatoes. You can boil, mash, fry, or cook them in a lot of different ways. You can make a green bean potato salad in just a few minutes. While you’re making the potatoes, you might want to try adding some beer to the water while it’s boiling to make them taste better. This makes the food taste better right away and can add a surprising level of complexity. When the beans and potatoes are done cooking, mix them with the sauce. This makes a filling dish that doesn’t take long to make.
Choose a warm German potato salad with fingerling potatoes for a change of pace. The red wine vinegar and whole-grain Dijon mustard that were used to make the dressing give it a sour taste. You don’t have to cook the green beans; just add them near the end while you’re mixing in the sauce. They will warm up in the pan. The combination of potatoes and green beans is great because it gives you both a food and a starch. It’s a good side dish that will keep you full.
15. Broth or bouillon
Look in the back of your closet for that lost box of broth or pack of bouillon cubes. They will add a lot of flavor to your canned vegetables. This is the only thing that makes canned green beans taste fancy, and it doesn’t take much work. Depending on the recipe, you can use this method in a few different ways. Simmer the green beans in broth or beef bouillon in a pot before you use them in a dish. This will help them soak up the flavors. Take the beans off the heat when most of the broth is gone. Let them cool down, then put them in a jar and put it in the fridge overnight. It takes a while to do this method, but the beans will taste better after they soak up the soup or bouillon.
Skip the overnight chilling for a faster version. Put the beans in soup or bouillon and cook them for at least 30 minutes. Then, strain the juice. Use garlic powder to sprinkle these greens on top, and serve them with cheese or grilled shrimp. But keep an eye on the salt, because both soup and bouillon tend to have a lot of it.
