Air Fryer Roasted Green Beans

Easy roasted green beans

Learn how to cook green beans in the air fryer!

Did you know that you can get perfectly cooked air fried green beans from the (affiliate link) Air Fryer in just a few minutes of cooking time?

For me, I like to eat roasted green beans as a snack while I’m cooking other things; it helps to keep me from snacking on less healthy things while I cook.

Serving suggestions

The simple technique of (affiliate link) Air Fryer roasting makes veggies deep in flavor and super yummy. These green beans come out crispy and crunchy with lovely golden browned bits.

I think of the air fryer as a powerful little oven that makes great roasted vegetables like Air Fryer Ranch Carrots and Air Fryer Snap Peas.

Serve this green beans recipe as a simple and classic side dish. Or toss them in a salad. Add them to pasta dishes.

Serve these green beans with Air Fryer Halibut Cheeks or Air Fryer Cedar Plank Salmon for an easy and healthy dinner!

I love roasted veggies

If you’re looking for an oven version of this, check out my oven roasted Easy Roasted Green Beans with Mushrooms and Onions recipe.

Both the air fryer and the oven version are vegan, gluten-free, and a really easy to make veggie side dish. Classic. Healthy.

variations

This easy to make roasted green beans air fryer side dish is perfect for holiday meals. Think Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter.

You can toss in some sliced red onions and mushrooms as well (like I did for my oven version), or leave it as just the one veggie.

Sprinkle some Parmesan on the beans about halfway through cooking, or when they are done cooking for a lovely Parmesan cheese green bean. To make Garlic Parmesan Cheese Green Beans, use 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan and 1 tablespoon garlic powder. Toss the green beans in with the oil, then toss with the garlic and Parmesan. Follow the recipe card as directed.

Add some crumbled bacon if you’d like. Sprinkle on some soy sauce. Top with bread crumbs or Panko. Add a pat of butter.

Some other great and simple veggie side dishes!

Looking for some other great and simple veggie side dishes? Try Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Foil Roasted Onions, and Honey Roasted Broccoli for some of my favorites!

Recipe notes & pro tips

Just chop a few veggies, or buy them pre-chopped from the produce section of your grocery store.

One pound of green beans is 16 ounces (in case your package is labeled differently). A little more or a little less of any of the veggie isn’t going to make a huge difference.

Just be careful not to crowd the Air Fryer basket too much or the veggies will steam, and won’t get as browned and crispy.

If you have a small air fryer, you may need to cook the green beans in two batches.

How long to air fry green beans at 400?

Small thin green beans should cook in 6-8 minutes. If you’re using large thick green beans, they may need a little longer to cook, about 8-10 minutes.

Be sure to check them for the level of browning that you like on your green beans.

Can these be made ahead?

Green beans are great for prepping ahead! You can clean and cut them ahead of time. Up to a couple of days in advance!

Just pop the cut veggies into a ziptop bag and into the fridge. Then, when you want to cook them, it’s just into the air fryer they go!

Want to lower the calorie content?

If you want to lower the calorie content even more, you can use a light spray of non-stick cooking spray instead of oil.

Personally, I like the flavor that the oil gives the green beans, and don’t mind the small calorie content that the oil has. But, again, it’s an option.

Frozen Green Beans

I’ve had several readers ask if this recipe can be made with frozen green beans. So, I thought I’d do some testing to see if it works.

The short answer, yes, this recipe works just as written if you want to use frozen or fresh green beans. I do think that fresh green beans have a better texture and flavor than frozen ones, but if you have a bag of frozen green beans, by all means, yes, this will absolutely work.

No need to defrost the green beans either. Just pop the green beans in the air fryer frozen, and they will defrost as they cook.

To test, I cooked two batches, one at 350° F, and one at 400° F. I wasn’t sure if the frozen beans would need a lower temperature because they would be a little softer already from being frozen.

The ones cooked at 400° were browned, a little more crunchy, and had a better flavor. Also, I like the idea that you don’t have to fuss around with changing the temperature on the air fryer like in some recipes.

Canned Green Beans

I’ve had some of you asking if the Air Fryer will work on canned green beans. So, back to the testing. But I’m happy to say that, yes, the air fryer seems to work wonderfully on just about any veggie!

Prep the can

I recipe tested with just one 14.5 ounce can of cut green beans.

Drain the liquid out of the 14.5 ounce can of green beans. After I drained the liquid, I weighed the green beans and found that I got about 8.5 ounces of beans from my can. About 8 ounces per can would mean that you would want 2 cans of green beans to make a pound of green beans, to follow the recipe card below.

results of canned

I preheated my air fryer, and cooked the beans at 400° F for 4 minutes, shaking halfway through the cooking. They’re heated through and plump, so you could totally stop cooking them here and they’re great.

I popped them back in for a total of 10 minutes, just like I cook the fresh and frozen ones, because I wondered if I could get them crispier and browned.

They came out great at 10 minutes! Nicely cooked, a little browned, and great flavor.

So, it’s really up to you! Green Beans are great in the air fryer: fresh, frozen, canned, all work so well! Of, course, I’m still very partial to fresh green beans, I think they have the best flavor and texture.

nutrition

I’ve had lots of readers ask about the carbs in green beans. The short answer here is that green beans are keto and low carb. However, always follow the advice of your doctor or nutritionist.

Are green beans keto or low carb?

You’ll see on the recipe card that green beans do indeed have carbohydrates in them. All beans do. For half pound, they have about 16 grams of total carbs.

Let’s take a quick look at what ½ pound means. In general, one pound of whole green beans will make about 3 cups of trimmed and chopped green beans. So, half a pound will be about 1.5 cups. Many websites will talk about a serving of green beans being anywhere from ½ cup to 1 cup. For simplicity, and because I like green beans, the serving size on my recipe card is ½ pound.

It may surprise you after reading the carb amounts that they are in fact, keto. Since green beans also have a good amount of fiber, the carbs calculate out to a low net carb total.

net carbs

Net carbs are roughly calculated by taking the total carbs and subtracting out the fiber (as well as sugar alcohols and allulose, however most people don’t have access to these last numbers). And the carb amounts will change if you’re talking about fresh, cooked, or canned green beans.

I’ve seen nutrition calculators estimating 1 cup of green beans as follows:
·      raw green beans: 7 total grams and 4.3 net grams carbs
·      cooked: 10.1 total and 6.2 net
·      canned: 6.6 total and 3.7 net

Green beans are high in nutrients, including folate, vitamin A, vitamin K, magnesium, and calcium, making them great veggies to add to your keto or low carb diet plan.