Green Beans Healthy Food Guide

Peak season: June through September

Recipe shown above: Blue Cheese-Walnut Green Beans

Weather means more when you have a garden. There’s nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans.

—Marcelene Cox, American author

While one of the most iconic uses for the ever-popular green bean is in a creamy casserole at the holidays, fresh, local beans purchased in season at your local market can’t be beat. Also called snap beans or string beans, green beans actually come in a range of colors, from green to yellow to purple. When a recipe calls for green beans, most likely it means the ones that are green in color—although any color will work.

It’s easy to add beautiful color to a dish with green beans. Toss green beans with pasta for an easy hot or cold supper, or simply sauté some market-fresh green beans with garlic for an easy, healthy side dish.

What you get

Green beans are a tasty low-calorie vegetable with fiber and a wide array of nutrients, such as vitamins A and C. A 1/2-cup serving of green beans provides some calcium, potassium and folate.

Tips

Shopping Tips: When buying fresh green beans, look for brightly colored beans that appear fresh, are tender but firm, and snap easily when bent.; Haricots verts is simply French for “green beans.” However, the term is often used for the very slender beans, also called French beans (not to be confused with frozen French-cut green beans), found in the produce section of many large supermarkets.