Turkish Green Beans
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Turkish Green Beans are a celebration of summer produce featuring fresh green beans simmered with plenty of olive oil, onions, and tomatoes until rich, silky, and tender. This vegetable-centric recipe, traditionally known as zeytinyağlı taze fasulye, is one of the most popular Turkish recipes during the summer months.
Serve it as an easy side dish or mezze course alongside my Dill Yogurt Sauce, Tzatziki Sauce or Ayran for a delightful Mediterranean-style meal.
Ingredients
-
5 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium-sized onion, chopped (~1 cup)
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cab diced tomatoes, (15-ounce can) or 2 medium tomatoes cut into small cubes
- 1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cut in half
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, or cane sugar or coconut sugar
- ¼ cup fresh dill or parsley
For Serving (Optional)
-
1 cup yogurt dill sauce, or plain unsweetened yogurt
-
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Directions
Heat the oil in a medium-size saute pan or a heavy bottom pan (such as a Dutch oven) over medium-high heat.
- Add the onion, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 5-6 minutes.
- Stir in the tomato paste and garlic and cook for another minute or so.
- Add the diced tomatoes, green beans, kosher salt, black pepper, and sugar.
- Give it a gentle stir to ensure that the green beans and tomatoes are evenly distributed in the pan. Put the lid on, bring it to a boil, turn the heat to medium-low, and cook until the beans are softened but still tender, 35-45 minutes. Be sure to stir it a few times during the cooking process.
- Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Stir in the dill and serve with yogurt and lemon wedges on the side.
Recipe Note
Yields: This dish makes 6-7 cups of braised green beans, which is ideal for serving 4 people. The nutritional values below are per serving.
Preparing the green beans: We used fresh string beans from supermarkets. To prepare them for cooking, simply cut the stem ends off first, then cut them in half, making sure all the beans are roughly the same size. If you are lucky enough to find romano beans or flat beans, you will need to remove the string from the bean. First, snap one end off and pull it all the way down to remove the string. Then repeat on the other side.
Cooking times may vary: Keep in mind that the cooking duration may be different depending on the type of green beans you use. Start checking around 25-30 minutes. If they are still crisp, keep cooking until tender.
The best part of this recipe is that it stores well and can be made ahead making it ideal for your summer meal prep. Here are my best make-ahead and storage tips:
Make Ahead: The dish can be made up to 2 days in advance and stored, covered, in the fridge. They often taste better the next day. Simply remove from the refrigerator 30 – 45 minutes before serving.
Storage: Leftover green beans will keep for up to 4 days in an airtight container in the fridge. Enjoy them cold as a salad or at room temperature.
Reheat: If you prefer the green beans warm, reheat them in a skillet over medium heat until warm.
Nutrition
Nutrition
- per serving
- Calories
- 226
Amount/Serving
% Daily Value
- Carbs
- 17 grams
- Protein
- 3 grams
- Fat
- 18 grams
- Saturated Fat
- 3 grams
- Polyunsaturated Fat
- 2 milligrams
- Monounsaturated Fat
- 13 milligrams
- Sodium
- 622 milligrams
- Potassium
- 366 milligrams
- Fiber
- 5 grams
- Sugar
- 9 grams
- Vitamin A
- 851 milligrams
- 32
- milligrams
- 61
- milligrams
- Iron
- 2 milligrams
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