Our Favorite Healthy Green Bean Recipes for Thanksgiving

Updated September 11, 2020

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Green bean casserole has a place in our hearts, but we also love using fresh veggies in our Thanksgiving lineup. Here are some of our favorite healthy green bean recipes for Thanksgiving. Be warned: These are all so tasty you may just forget about grandma’s green bean casserole.

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Creamy Green Beans & Mushrooms

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This take on a green bean casserole from José Andrés features perfectly cooked green beans in a mushroom sauce made with real cream. Andrés even gives the traditional canned french-fried onions a run for their money with some freshly frizzled shallot rings. Serve for Thanksgiving or as a side for roast beef or roast chicken.

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Green Bean Salad with Feta Dressing

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Briny feta, tangy buttermilk and fresh herbs combine in a yummy dressing for steamed green beans in this healthy side dish recipe. Serve with grilled chicken, pork or steak for an easy dinner.

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Soft Green Beans

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Modern cooking may champion barely cooked, tender-crisp veggies, but the soft and luscious ones you find in many Southern kitchens, like these super-soft green beans, make a mouthwatering healthy side dish for Thanksgiving dinner.

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Steamed Green Beans with Rosemary-Garlic Vinaigrette & Fried Shallots

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Here's a new way to delight your green-bean-loving guests. The genius of this easy green bean recipe is in the dressing, which is made with avocado and olive oil that has also been used to fry shallots and garlic.

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Packet-Roasted Balsamic Green Beans & Peppers

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If you need something a bit lighter to balance out your meal, this recipe can give you a break from the richer dishes on the table. Green beans and green and red peppers are tossed with a sweet and spicy dressing that is light but flavorful.

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Glazed Haricots Verts with Pickled Shallot-Walnut Relish

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Skip Grandma's mushroom-soup-drenched casserole this year and cook this fresher green bean side dish with a tangy shallot and walnut relish instead. If you can't find white balsamic vinegar, use apple-cider vinegar instead.

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Green Beans with Parmesan-Garlic Breadcrumbs

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In this easy green bean recipe, browning the butter before tossing it with the breadcrumbs produces a nice nutty flavor. Serve this green bean dish as a healthy alternative to green bean casserole on Thanksgiving.

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Blue Cheese-Walnut Green Beans

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Tender-crisp green beans tossed with creamy blue cheese and topped with toasted walnuts make for the perfect Thanksgiving side dish.

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Smothered Green Beans with New Potatoes

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This green bean recipe from chef Alex Patout of Landry's restaurant in New Iberia, Louisiana, gets plenty of flavor from bacon and onions.

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Sweet & Sour Green Beans

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This slightly sweet, slightly sour green bean recipe takes just a few minutes to make and is great served at room temperature. Make it ahead and let the green beans bathe in the dressing, soaking up flavor.

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Green Beans with Hard-Boiled Eggs, Fried Shallots & Bacon

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The secret to this delicious green bean recipe is cooking the vegetables in the oil that you fry the bacon and shallots in—a great decadent alternative to green bean casserole!

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Tomato & Green Bean Casserole with Spicy Herb Pesto

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There’s no gloppy canned soup in this healthy green bean casserole recipe! Simply give cilantro, parsley or chives (or a mix of all three) a whirl in the food processor to make the pesto-like sauce that ties the casserole together.

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Garlicky Green Beans

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We cook then cool the beans in advance so they can be heated up and seasoned moments before the meal. If you don't like tarragon, substitute dill or leave it out completely.

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Roasted New Potatoes & Green Beans

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Whoever said potato salad needs to be cold? For this warm version, new potatoes are roasted right alongside green beans, then tossed in a tangy champagne vinegar and Gorgonzola dressing. If you like, you can toss in some baby arugula.

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Green Bean Casserole Salad

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Trying to lighten up your favorite Thanksgiving casserole? Try this quick and easy green bean salad version, which combines fried shallots, croutons, mushrooms, green beans, and chopped chard leaves for a lighter take on a holiday classic.

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Blistered Green Beans with Coconut, Sesame & Scallion Oil

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This recipe takes sesame green beans up a notch. Coconut helps accentuate the natural sweetness of green beans and a drizzle of the ginger- and scallion-infused oil rounds out the flavors. Serve with miso-glazed salmon or cod and brown rice.

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Balsamic-Roasted Green Beans with Parmesan

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Sweet balsamic vinegar and nutty Parmesan cheese complement roasted green beans and shallots in this easy and healthy side dish. Roasting the green beans gives them a sweet, caramelized flavor while they still retain some bite. Serve with chicken, fish, pork—you name it. These green beans are also a wonderful addition to your Thanksgiving meal.

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Fossolia (Ethiopian-Style Green Beans)

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Like many Ethiopian dishes, this green bean side dish recipe has endless variations depending on who's cooking it. Green beans are always the star, most often along with carrots and rosemary, though it can also be served with potatoes or cabbage.

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Lemon-Dill Green Beans

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This lemon and dill vinaigrette is a natural complement to green beans. To make this recipe serve 10, multiply all the ingredients by 2½: Use 2½ pounds green beans, 3 tablespoons dill, 2½ tablespoons each shallot, oil and lemon juice, 2½ teaspoons mustard and ¾ teaspoon each salt and pepper.

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Green Beans & Pancetta with Whole-Grain Mustard Dressing

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In this easy vegetable side recipe, green beans are tossed with crispy bits of pancetta, shallot and whole-grain mustard after cooking. If you can't find pancetta, bacon is a perfect alternative.

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Simply French Green Beans

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Thin green beans cook quickly, so rinsing them with cold water (or putting them into an ice water bath) is important if you want to keep them crisp. The beans in this side dish recipe takes only 20 minutes to prepare, but taste their best after a couple hours in the fridge where they soak up the flavor of the shallot-thyme mixture.

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Charred Green Beans with Mustard Vinaigrette & Hazelnuts

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Our go-to trick for this crunchy, mustardy vegan side dish: Use a grill basket—it lets you cook all the things that would ordinarily fall through the grill grates, no skewering required.

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Sautéed Green Beans with Tomatoes, Mushrooms & Garlic

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This versatile and easy side dish is a tasty way to showcase green beans. We boil the beans briefly before sautéing for perfectly crisp-tender vegetables that don't get mushy.

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Green Beans with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

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A much healthier take on the old-fashioned green bean casserole, this version thankfully skips the canned soup and fried onions! Fresh green beans are cooked until crisp-tender and topped with a garlicky-thyme mushroom sauce, shallots and crumbled chèvre.

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Roasted Green Beans with Applewood Bacon

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Cooking bacon and green beans on a sheet pan together simplifies holiday meal prep. Red-wine vinegar and lemon juice provide a balanced, bright flavor.

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