This Sweet and Sour Green Beans side dish recipe is a fun way to prepare regular old green beans. I love how the subtle sweet and sour flavors pair with the garlic, bacon and green beans!
A Simple Side of Sweet and Sour Green Beans
I’m always on the lookout for green bean recipes. Why? Because every summer we grow green beans in our garden. (Fresh green beans are the best!) I preserve the rest of the green beans in the freezer, and then there they are, waiting to be eaten the rest of the year! So it’s handy to have different recipes and ways of preparing them to hopefully avoid green bean burnout, since we eat quite a bit of green beans throughout the year.
Sweet and sour flavors in this dish aren’t super strong, which is great.
The bacon and green bean combo is familiar and delicious to us all, I believe.
And then there’s garlic. It adds another little element of flavor. And I love it.
It only takes 15-20 minutes to have this quick side dish on the table from start to finish, which is a win for last minute cooks like me!
And also, if you’re needing a new popular holiday side dish for Thanksgiving dinner, give this one a try! Mashed potatoes with brown butter is another great side dish that the whole family is sure to enjoy. Today’s main dish was Ranch Chicken and Rice Bake, another family favorite.
This post contains affiliate links. As Amazon Associates, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Supplies we used
- Saucepan or skillet – we use a medium skillet with tall sides and it works perfectly for this recipe.
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Garlic mincer or press
- Bacon frying supplies – we use the oven method today, so we used a pan and aluminum foil for frying and a cutting board and kitchen knife for chopping.
- Spoon – or spatula for stirring and tossing the green bean mixture
- Strainer – A separate colander dish of sorts to drain off the water and hold the beans while you make the sauce.
Ingredients
Green beans – we use our own home-grown fresh or frozen green beans, but you can absolutely buy fresh or frozen (or canned!) green beans to use in this recipe. Whole green beans or cut, it doesn’t matter what style they are.
Bacon – I don’t care for bought bacon bits so I like to fry my own slices of bacon and crumble them into bits.
Butter – salted butter; one thing I would like to try is to use bacon grease instead of butter in this recipe.
Garlic – full transparency here, I used minced garlic from the can today! I do like to mince my own fresh cloves when possible.
Brown sugar & soy sauce – the sweet and sour ingredients
Salt & pepper
Find the full recipe on the handy little printable recipe card below!⬇
How to make Sweet & Sour Green Beans
First, cook and crumble bacon if necessary. You can use the microwave, oven, air fryer, whichever method is your favorite to cook bacon. (I used the oven this time!)
1. Place bacon on a pan
2. Bake at 375* for 15-20 minutes
3. Cool and chop into bacon bits.
Cook the green beans in water for 10-15 minutes or until the beans reach your perfect level of soft.
Dump the green beans in a strainer or colander to drain and place the empty pan back on the stovetop. Melt the butter in the pan, then add the minced garlic and sautè a minute or two.
Add the soy sauce, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and fried bacon pieces and stir. Then add the drained green beans back into the pan and toss in the sweet and sour sauce. Place a lid on the pan and let the beans simmer for a little bit longer.
Serve and enjoy!🧡
How do I store Sweet and Sour Green Beans?
If you have leftover sweet and sour green beans, let them cool then place them in an airtight container and store them in the fridge for up to four days.
Notes
You can also use canned beans if you wish, just skip step 2 in the instructions.
When it comes to salting the beans, I would definitely recommend tasting them before adding all the salt. Depending on your soy sauce, you might not need all the salt, or you might need more!
If you’re using bacon bits from the store, 4-6 fried bacon strips yields about 1/2 cup of bacon bits.
Needing some new recipe inspo? Try these side dishes!
Share this recipe
Sweet & Sour Green Beans
I love how the subtle sweet and sour flavors pair with the bacon and garlic in this simple green bean side dish.
Ingredients
- 1 pound (approx. 4 cups) frozen green beans
- 4-6 slices bacon, cooked
- 2 tbsp. butter
- 2 garlic cloves. minced
- 2 tbsp. brown sugar
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. black pepper
Instructions
- First, cook and dice the bacon if necessary. You can use the microwave, oven, air fryer, whichever method works best.
- Cook the green beans in water for 10-15 minutes or until the beans reach your perfect level of soft.
- Dump the green beans in a strainer or colander to drain and place the empty pan back on the stovetop. Melt the butter in the pan, then add the minced garlic and sautè a minute or two.
- Add the soy sauce, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and fried bacon pieces and stir. Then add the drained green beans back into the pan and toss in the sweet and sour sauce. Place a lid on the pan and let the beans simmer for a few minutes.
- Serve and enjoy!🧡
Notes
You can also use canned beans if you wish, just skip step 2 in the instructions.
When it comes to salting the beans, I would definitely recommend tasting them before adding all the salt. Depending on your soy sauce, you might not need all the salt, or you might need more!
If you're using bacon bits from the store, 4-6 slices of bacon yields about 1/2 cup of bacon bits.
If you have leftover sweet and sour green beans, let them cool then place them in an airtight container and store them in the fridge for up to four days.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 168Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 32mgSodium: 849mgCarbohydrates: 9gFiber: 1gSugar: 7gProtein: 7g
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Did you try Sweet and Sour Green Beans?
We’d love to hear how it went for you; leave a comment below!
Thanks for visiting our small town…
…Where we share unique Mennonite recipes with bits of our daily life thrown in now and then. Thanks for following along! We appreciate you.
’til next time, we love you and we’ll be praying for you,
-Julie
Leave a Reply