Instant Pot Sesame Green Beans- Looking for a quick & easy, healthy, versatile side dish? Green Beans are steamed to crisp tender perfection and finished off with a spicy garlic sesame oil. The flavors pair well with so many things making these beans the perfect side dish for chicken, steak, BBQ and so much more.
This recipe is really versatile! You can easily adjust the spiciness to meet your tastes or experiment with other seasonings (suggestions below). One thing is for sure, you’ll love how easy it is to make green beans in the Instant Pot.
How to Make Instant Pot Sesame Green Beans:
- Add 1 cup water to the Instant Pot inner pot and arrange a steamer basket on the bottom. Add the green beans to the steamer basket. You’ll want to make sure steamer basket is positioned so no beans touch the water.
- Secure the lid and set valve to SEALING. Set Instant Pot to MANUAL/PRESSURE COOK on high pressure for 0 minutes. When the pot comes to pressure you will hear beeps and the screen will read L0:00. Immediately do a QUICK RELEASE to remove pressure from pot.
- Carefully remove steamer basket with green beans from Instant Pot (with oven mitts) and drain water from the pot.
- Optional Step- Prepare a large bowl of ice water. Plunge green beans in ice water and allow to cool (approx. 2-3 mins). By shocking the beans in the ice water it helps stop any further cooking and helps keep the beans that gorgeous bright green color.
- Add olive oil to inner pot and select SAUTE mode. Once the oil is hot, add garlic, sesame oil, and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine ingredients and add green beans back to the pot. Stir well to make sure beans are evenly coated and warm (about 30 seconds.) Season with salt, to taste and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Recipe Notes:
Fresh or Frozen Green Beans?
You can use either fresh or frozen green beans for this recipe. I prefer when possible to use fresh green beans because I like the extra snap they tend to have vs. frozen beans but either work perfectly well for this recipe.
If using frozen green beans you’ll want to adjust the cook time to 1 minute for crisp tender (still have a snap and slightly “squeaky” green beans). You can add additional cook time if you prefer your green beans to be more cooked/softer.
0 Minutes cook time?
Yes, that’s right! Set the Instant Pot to zero minutes cook time. When the pot comes to pressure (about 8-10 mins) the screen will read L0:00. Immediately do a Quick Release and remove the pressure from pot.The time it takes to bring the Instant Pot to pressure is just enough to yield perfect crisp tender green beans.
If you prefer your green beans more cooked than “crisp tender”( no snap when you bite into them) you can elect to set the cook time to 1 minute. For darker green, softer green beans you can adjust further to 2-3 minutes cook time depending on your preference.
What to serve with Instant Pot Sesame Green Beans?
Instant Pot Sesame Green Beans are great served warm or cold and are the perfect accompaniment to many different types of dishes. Try them with, "Fall-off-the-bone" Instant Pot Whole Chicken, Easy Instant Pot Mongolian Beef, or Instant Pot Country Style BBQ ribs.
They also pair well with BBQ, meatloaf, steak, seafood, grilled chicken or even with holiday meals such as spiral ham or Thanksgiving turkey. I also like to add cold sesame green beans to my salads, they add so much flavor!
Swap the Spices
If you want to change the flavor profile of these beans you can easily swap out the olive oil, garlic, sesame oil, red pepper flakes and sesame seeds used in this recipe for other spices. Here are a few ideas:
Keep it simple: olive oil, salt & pepper
One of my favs: butter, garlic, course ground black pepper and Parmesan cheese.
So tasty: olive oil, garlic, squeeze of lemon, salt & pepper, toasted almond slivers.
Sweet & spicy: soy sauce, honey, red pepper flakes.
An Italian vibe: olive oil, red pepper flakes, Parmesan, toasted pinenuts.
Instant Pot Sesame Green Beans
Ingredients
- 1 lb. green beans trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 ½ tsp toasted sesame oil
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- Sea salt to taste
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds
Instructions
- Add 1 cup water to the Instant Pot inner pot and arrange a steamer basket on the bottom. Add the green beans to the steamer basket. You’ll want to make sure steamer basket is positioned so no beans touch the water.
- Secure the lid and set valve to SEALINSet Instant Pot to MANUAL/PRESSURE COOK on high pressure for 0 minutes. When the pot comes to pressure you will hear beeps and the screen will read L0:0Immediately do a QUICK RELEASE to remove pressure from pot.
- Carefully remove steamer basket with green beans from Instant Pot (with oven mittand drain water from the pot.
- Optional Step- Prepare a large bowl of ice water. Plunge green beans in ice water and allow to cool (approx. 2-3 mins). By shocking the beans in the ice water it helps stop any further cooking and helps keep the beans that gorgeous bright green color.
- Add olive oil to inner pot and select SAUTE mode. Once the oil is hot, add garlic, sesame oil, and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine ingredients and add green beans back to the pot. Stir well to make sure beans are evenly coated and warm (about 30 seconds.) Season with salt, to taste and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe adapted from The Fresh & Healthy Instant Pot Cookbook by Megan Gilmore (pg 51 Sesame Green Beans) (affiliate link)
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