Easy Air Fryer Green Beans Recipe [+VIDEO]

I like to spend most of my time in the kitchen preparing the main meal. So, when it comes to side dishes, I prefer to keep things super easy. This recipe for Air Fryer Green Beans has less than 5 ingredients and minimal prep. Make this if you want crispy green beans or (for some) a substitute for french fries.

Why Make These:

Green beans are a keto-friendly, low-carb vegetable with a lot of nutrients and benefits. 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. 

Ingredients Needed

• Fresh Green Beans: I purchased these from the market pre-cut and pre-trimmed
• Cooking fat: I prefer these with butter, but you could use olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil ghee
• Garlic & Herb Seasoning: this is a salt-free spice blend that includes things like garlic powder, thyme, pepper and other spices. It’s perfect to get lots of flavor easily.
• Sea Salt: You can add this to taste or omit it

How to Make Green Beans in the Air Fryer

1. Trim & Prep: You don’t need to spend a lot of time prepping the beans, just snip the ends off and place the fresh green beans in a large 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 the basket of your air fryer and cook them for about 12 minutes. I like to use tongs to toss my beans when the timer reaches 6 minutes, 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 dishes like my:

• 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

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 that 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.

Can you use frozen green beans?

You can cook frozen green beans in your air fryer. 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 following this Supreme 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 in your Instant Pot following this recipe that cooks the green beans with bacon 

Make More Vegetables in Your Air Fryer

The air fryer makes vegetables better. 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!