Easy Air Fryer Green Beans Recipe

This easy Air Fryer Green Beans recipe has less than 5 ingredients, requires minimal prep, and has a quick cook time. Make this recipe if you want crispy green beans or a healthy, perfect side dish substitute for french fries.

Why Make Air-Fried Green Beans:

• Healthy Side Dish: Green beans are a keto-friendly, low carb vegetable with a lot of nutrients and benefits. While green beans may be eaten as a healthy snack, they go well with most main dishes and can be prepared using a range of methods like steaming, grilling, and sauteing. I personally love them because they are easy to make, but also crispy and crunchy instead of soft. 
• Quick & easy recipe: This green bean recipe can be ready in as little as 8-10 minutes.

Ingredients Needed

• Fresh Green Beans: I purchased trimmed fresh green beans from the market to save time, but you could get a pound of green beans from the store and just cut off the ends of the green beans yourself.
• Cooking fat: I prefer these with butter, but you could use olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, ghee, or your favorite cooking spray
• Garlic & Herb Seasoning: This is a salt-free spice blend that includes simple seasonings like garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, black pepper, and other spices. It’s perfect to get lots of flavors easily.
• Sea Salt: I’m using sea salt, but if you’re using kosher salt, start with less and season to taste.

You can get the full list of ingredient amounts and instructions from the full recipe card at the end of the post.

How to Make Green Beans in the Air Fryer

1. Trim & Prep: You don’t need to spend a lot of time prepping the string beans, just snip the ends off and place the fresh green beans in a large mixing bowl. To save time, you can buy your beans trimmed from the refrigerated section of the market. 
2. Toss to Coat: After your green beans are trimmed and washed, all you need to do is toss to coat them in cooking fat and seasonings.
3. Air Fry: Add the beans to your air fryer basket in a single layer (this helps the hot air circulate) and cook them for about 12 minutes. I like to use tongs to toss my beans when the timer reaches 6 minutes, which is the halfway point. 

What to Serve with these:

Air fryer green beans make the perfect pairing with a lot of main dishes. You could try them with my easy and delicious Air Fryer Pork Chops. They also go great with these main dish ideas:

• Air Fryer Chicken Wings
• Air Fryer Chicken Legs
• Pressure Cooker Pulled Pork
• Keto Lasagna
• Garlic Parmesan Chicken Wings
• Seared Halibut
• Air Fryer Salmon or Crispy Skin Salmon

Overall, these are super versatile, so you can always get more ideas by checking the recipe index.

Top Tips & Cooking FAQS

• Add parchment paper or aluminum foil to the bottom of your air-fryer basket to keep it clean.
• Preheating is optional: there are so many benefits to a preheated air fryer, but it’s not necessary for this recipe (unless the type of air fryer you have requires it).
• Adjust the cooking time if needed: depending on the size of your air fryer and whether you are using thinner or thicker beans (like haricot verts), you can adjust the cook time.

Variations & Seasoning Tips

I love garlic and herb seasoning on my air fryer green beans. But that doesn’t mean you can’t spice things up a bit. The seasoning I use in this recipe is a salt-free Garlic and Herb blend, but you can use any of the spices from this spice collection.

Besides that, I often keep spice mixes on hand at home. You can easily use any of the spice mixes below that I share on the blog:

• Ranch Seasoning which makes it a great pairing with chicken wings
• Cajun Seasoning is great if you want a spicier or southern green bean flavor
• Taco Seasoning, which adds a smoky southwest flavor to the beans

All of the spice mixes should be used to taste. In this recipe, I’m using a salt-free blend so 1 tbsp per pound of vegetables is great with some salt. However, for blends that have salt, I’d use 1 tsp per pound of veggies and add more depending on your preferences.

Storage & Leftovers

If you don’t eat all of your green beans, no problem, just store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Can you use frozen green beans?

Yes, you can cook air fryer frozen green beans. But, they turn out more like sautéed vegetables instead of crisp.

Other Ways to Cook Green Beans

You may be used to boiled green beans or microwaving a can of beans to serve with dinner. But there are plenty of tasty ways to prepare green beans that add flavor. Some of my favorite ways to prepare green beans include:

• Saute them following my Sauteed Green Beans Recipe 
• Bake them with my Keto Green Bean Casserole recipe
• Roast them following this Oven Fried Green Beans recipe
• Grill them using this Skillet Grilled Green Beans recipe
• Pressure Cook them with this Instant Pot Green Beans recipe
• Slow Cook them with bacon using my Crockpot Fresh Green Beans recipe

Make More Vegetables in Your Air Fryer

The air fryer makes vegetables better. And the best thing is that the flavor and texture can convince picky eaters to eat more veggies. If you want more ideas, try out these air fryer vegetable recipes that taste great:

• Garlic Parmesan Air Fryer Brussel Sprouts
• Air Fryer Roasted Broccoli
• Air Fryer Cauliflower
• Cheesy Zucchini Noodles
• Air Fryer Jicama Fries

If you try this recipe, please stop back and leave it a star rating and/or a review in the comments. Stay connected & share photos of your creations with me & others on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest!