Your Guide to Fresh Green Beans, the Smooth, Snappy Pods of High Summer (2024)

Green beans may be most well-known by their inevitable appearance on the Thanksgiving table, shrouded in cream of mushroom soup and topped with French fried onions. But in the summer, when they’re in their peak season, we tend to lean on green beans for lighter, fresher fare.

Crisp and slender beans pair up with fresh herbs, lettuces, and other vibrant summer veg for a whole new look. They’re tender, sweet, and earthy with just the right amount of crunch.

If you’ve never cooked with fresh green beans or need some more inspiration on how to use them, we’ve gathered everything you need to know right here.

Green Beans

There are many different varieties of green beans, which can range in pod shape (from super thin beans to flatter, broader beans), color (from green to purple, red to black streaked), and growing style (either a short bush or long, twisting vines).

The term “green bean” refers to all long, tender beans that are green in color, but they can also be called string beans, snap beans, bush beans, or haricots verts. Yellow “green” beans and purple "green" beans are called wax beans and are also quite popular during the summer months when they’re in season.

If you have a garden at home, you can grow both bush and pole beans relatively easily. Plant your seeds directly in your garden (about 1 inch deep) after any danger of frost has passed; green beans are fragile and need the warm weather to survive and thrive. Water the seeds and plants regularly so the soil stays moist.

For more detailed information on growing your own green beans, see this guide.

Green beans should be stored unwashed in the crisper drawer of your fridge. If they came in a bag, keep them in the bag when storing. If they came in a small berry box from the market, transfer them to a reusable storage or plastic bag before storing them in the fridge.

Stored properly, the beans should keep for up to one week. If the beans turn very brown or feel slimy, they’ve gone bad.

As with other vegetables, give them a thorough rinse before you are ready to cook with them. Trim the stem end (the end where the bean connected to the plant) which looks brown and is too tough to eat. The other end can be trimmed, but is perfectly edible, so the choice is yours. There used to be a fibrous string running along the seam of these beans, but thanks to selection and breeding, this has all but been eliminated.

Once you’ve trimmed the beans, quickly check them for any brown, damaged sections of pods (which you can slice off). If you see any of the beans inside of the pods have turned brown, discard or compost that pod. Leave them whole, chop them into segments, or even slice them thinly on the bias for a more elegant, bite-size addition to a salad or stir fry.