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Recipe
35 min

Green Beans Amandine

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Green Beans Amandine
Author: America's Test Kitchen

Recipe By America's Test Kitchen

Published on August 5, 2024

This simple dish of green beans is tossed with toasted almonds and a light lemon-butter sauce.

Time

35 min

Yield

8

Why This Recipe Works

A simple dish of green beans tossed with toasted almonds and a light lemon-butter sauce, green beans amandine is refined yet not intimidating. Unfortunately, recipes too often yield limp beans swimming in pools of overly acidic sauce, with soft, pale almonds thrown on as an afterthought. We wanted to revive this side dish with tender green beans, crisp almonds, and a balanced sauce.For maximum flavor, we toasted the almonds then added some butter to the skillet and allowed it to brown for further nuttiness. Adding some lemon juice off the heat brightened our sauce considerably. After steaming the green beans in a little water in a covered skillet until they were crisp-tender, we tossed them with our sauce for a simple, flavorful take on this classic side.

Ingredients

⅓ cup sliced almonds
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 pounds green beans, stem ends trimmed
½ cup water
Salt

Instructions

Cook along with these step-by-step instructions

step 1 imagestep 2 imagestep 3 imagestep 4 image
  1. Toast almonds in large skillet over medium-low heat, stirring often, until just golden, about 6 minutes. Add butter and cook, stirring constantly, until butter is golden brown and has nutty aroma, about 3 minutes. Transfer almond mixture to bowl and stir in lemon juice.
    Recipe Tip
    For this recipe, we recommend you use a stainless steel skillet rather than a nonstick skillet, especially when making the almond sauce. The reason? It’s more difficult to gauge the color of the buttered sauce with the dark surface of a nonstick pan. Once the butter gets too dark, the dish will taste bitter.
  2. Add beans, water, and 1/2 teaspoon salt to empty skillet. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until beans are nearly tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove lid and cook over medium-high heat until liquid evaporates, 3 to 5 minutes. Off heat, add reserved almond mixture to skillet and toss to combine. Season with salt. Serve.
    Recipe Tip
    After steaming the green beans, make sure there’s no residual water in the pan before adding the almond mixture, as you want the sauce to cling to the beans. You can quickly evaporate the water by briefly turning the heat up to medium-high.

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Green Beans Amandine

Recipe By America's Test Kitchen

Published on August 5, 2024

Time

35 min

Yield

8

Green Beans Amandine

Ingredients

⅓ cup sliced almonds3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces2 teaspoons lemon juice2 pounds green beans, stem ends trimmed½ cup waterSalt

Instructions

  1. Toast almonds in large skillet over medium-low heat, stirring often, until just golden, about 6 minutes. Add butter and cook, stirring constantly, until butter is golden brown and has nutty aroma, about 3 minutes. Transfer almond mixture to bowl and stir in lemon juice.
    Recipe Tip
    For this recipe, we recommend you use a stainless steel skillet rather than a nonstick skillet, especially when making the almond sauce. The reason? It’s more difficult to gauge the color of the buttered sauce with the dark surface of a nonstick pan. Once the butter gets too dark, the dish will taste bitter.
  2. Add beans, water, and 1/2 teaspoon salt to empty skillet. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until beans are nearly tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove lid and cook over medium-high heat until liquid evaporates, 3 to 5 minutes. Off heat, add reserved almond mixture to skillet and toss to combine. Season with salt. Serve.
    Recipe Tip
    After steaming the green beans, make sure there’s no residual water in the pan before adding the almond mixture, as you want the sauce to cling to the beans. You can quickly evaporate the water by briefly turning the heat up to medium-high.
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