Green Beans with Tahini and Lemon
Green Beans with Tahini and Lemon are a great low-carb side dish and everyone who likes Tahini Sauce will love this recipe. You can also make the sauce with creamy peanut butter if you don’t have Tahini, and this post has more great ideas for cooking fresh green beans, enjoy!
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This recipe for Green Beans with Tahini and Lemon is a fun think-outside-the-box way to cook green beans for anyone who is growing them in the garden or finding fresh green beans in the market. And the combination of Tahini Sauce and lemon really was a winner in this recipe, and it was definitely something that we gobbled up when we tested the recipe.
But if Tahini is not going to work at your house (or you don’t want to buy it for one recipe), this would still be tasty with natural peanut butter substituted for the Tahini. If you like fresh greens beans I hope you’ll try this for a new way to cook them, because these beans are really good!
What ingredients do you need?
- fresh green beans (preferably thin French style green beans.)
- salt
- flat-leaf Italian parsley (Parsley is optional, but it did enhance the flavors.)
- Tahini Sauce (affiliate link)
- fresh-squeezed lemon juice, I used my fresh-frozen lemon juice
- minced fresh garlic or Minced Garlic (affiliate link) from a jar
- extra-virgin Olive Oil (affiliate link) (Use the best tasting olive oil you have for this.)
- salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
What is Tahini?
Some people might not be familiar with Tahini, which is a middle eastern sauce made from ground sesame seeds. It’s an essential ingredient in hummus, and adds wonderful sesame flavor in many dishes. I think Tahini goes especially well with vegetables, and if you enter “tahini” into the search bar on the blog you’ll find other recipes where I’ve used it. You can find Tahini Sauce (affiliate link) it at ethnic markets, health food stores, and large grocery stores or buy it online. And if you don’t want to buy any, creamy peanut butter will work for most recipes using Tahini.
What brand of Tahini do I prefer?
There are many good brands of Tahini, but Iām a huge fan of Soom Tahini (affiliate link) and thatās the kind I always choose.
Want more ideas for cooking fresh green beans?
It’s no secret that I love fresh green beans! If you want to see every recipe on my site that has green beans as an ingredient, check out the Green Beans Recipes.
How to make Green Beans with Tahini and Lemon:
(Scroll down for complete recipe including nutritional information.)
- Trim both ends of the green beans. (I do this by gathering a bunch in my hand and standing them up on the cutting board so the ends are even and trimming, then do the same thing on the other side. I like whole beans but you can cut them smaller if you prefer.)
- Cook the beans for 3-4 minutes in boiling salted water.
- Drain immediately and rinse with cold water so they don’t keep cooking.
- While the beans cook, whisk together the Tahini Sauce, lemon juice, minced garlic, and olive oil to make the sauce.
- Season sauce with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.
- Coarsely chop the parsley.
- When the beans have drained, lay them out on a plate, drizzle sauce over, and garnish with chopped parsley.
- Serve the Green Beans with Tahini and Lemon right away and enjoy!
Make it a Low-Carb Meal:
This delicious green beans side dish would taste amazing with Rosemary Mustard Grilled Chicken, Grilled Cuban Flank Steak, Chicken Cutlets with Mustard Sauce, Paprika Chicken, or Spicy Baked Shrimp with Garlic for a low-carb meal!
More Low-Carb Green Beans Recipes:
- Roasted Green Beans with Mushrooms, Balsamic, and Parmesan
- Lemony Green Beans
- Green Beans with Lemon, Parmesan, and Pine Nuts
- Garlic Roasted Green Beans with Shallots and Almonds
- Roasted Green Beans and Red Bell Pepper
Green Beans with Tahini and Lemon
These barely-cooked Green Beans with Tahini and Lemon are an amazing low-carb and gluten-free side dish for a special meal.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. fresh green beans, ends trimmed (preferably thin French style green beans.)
- 1 tsp. salt (for green bean cooking water)
- 2 T chopped flat-leaf Italian parsley (Parsley is optional, but it did enhance the flavors.)
- 2 T Tahini
- 2 T fresh-squeezed or fresh-frozen lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp. finely minced fresh garlic (or more)
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (Use the best tasting olive oil you have for this.)
- salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Bring a medium sized pot of water to a boil.
- Trim both ends of green beans, but keep them whole. (I trim by grabbing a handful of beans in the center and then standing them up on the cutting board, letting them fall so the ends are even. Then trim and repeat on the other side.)
- When the water is boiling, stir in the salt and add the green beans. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until they are barely tender-crisp. Drain beans and rinse with cold water; then let them drain well.
- While the beans are cooking whisk together the Tahini Sauce (affiliate link), lemon juice, minced garlic, and olive oil to make the sauce. (I used my fresh-frozen lemon juice.
- Taste to see if you'd like more garlic; then season to taste with salt and fresh ground black pepper.
- Wash and coarsely chop the parsley if using.
- To serve, arrange the beans on a serving dish, drizzle sauce over and garnish with the parsley. Serve hot.
Notes
Recipe adapted very slightly from Fine Cooking.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 203Total Fat: 18gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 15gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 740mgCarbohydrates: 11gFiber: 4gSugar: 4gProtein: 4g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
This recipe would be great for low-carb eating plans, including Keto. Tahini and olive oil would both be considered “good fats” for the original South Beach Diet, so Green Beans with Tahini-Lemon Sauce would be a great side dish that would be approved for all phases of South Beach.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Check out Side Dishes for more recipes like this one.Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalynās Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes Iām sharing there.
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This recipe was first posted in 2012 and I’ve probably made it at least once every summer since then. It was last updated with more information in 2022.
17 Comments on “Green Beans with Tahini and Lemon”
Thanks Kalyn! I’m not a big string bean eater, but these were delicious. I didn’t have enough string beans, so I added some mushrooms. Yum!
So glad you enjoyed it. I like the sound of mushrooms with this!
It totally is a food paradox, I agree! I’ve never cooked with tahini…maybe Thanksgiving is the time to try it out š Thanks for including my green beans and pecans recipe! That’s a recipe I vaguely adapted from one of YOUR recipes!
I knew other bloggers would get it! Fun hearing that I featured a recipe that was inspired from my recipe too! Your recipes always look good!
Grean beans, lemon and tahini? This is a flavor combo made in my kind of heaven. Thank you for the idea and recipe.
Glad you enjoyed the egg muffins; thanks for the shout-out!
I came over to thank you. I made your egg muffins from 2008 and I can tell you, they are still delicious. I just wrote them up. Mine are not as pretty as yours but I bet they taste as good.
Now, these beans are calling my name.
http://bizzybakesb.blogspot.com/2013/11/kalyns-egg-muffins.html
Wow, those look delicious, Kalyn! I have to admit that I have never cooked with tahini (even when I make hummus I use toasted sesame seeds instead). Maybe it's time to change that. Also, thank you so much for including my recipe in your post!!
Hi Kalyn, I just added the bean recipe to my meal plan for Thanksgiving. Out to buy ingredients today.
Jeanette, I love tahini, and I think this sauce would be good on a lot of things!
Mark, glad you liked it.
I heared that green food is extremely good for health. I am not a big fan of green food. Well i tries your recipe and found it awesome. Thanks for sharing. I am looking for more healthy dishes.
I have to say I had never had tahini sauce on vegetables until recently when I tried it with roasted beets – it was probably one of the best ways I've enjoyed beets, so I am not at all surprised to see it here with green beans – definitely going to give this a try.
Thanks Shirley! And this sauce would be good on so many veggies.
You are a green bean queen, Kalyn! I love your green bean recipes, especially the Roasted Green Beans with Red Bell Peppers, Garlic, and Ginger, so I'm happy to see you have it in this listing. That's become a family favorite and was requested for Thanksgiving again. š I'll try this recipe for myself in the near future.
Shirley
Joanne, I bet you would like this, and the sauce would be good on other veggies too.
Thanks Lydia! This may not be everyone's idea of a Thanksgiving dish, but it would suit me perfectly.
The perfect cure for the "brown holiday table" blahs! These beans look fresh enough to jump right off the screen, and I think the sesame flavor of the tahini would be such an interesting addition to the traditional menu.
I'm not the biggest green bean fan but with that tahini sauce…I'm pretty sure that could change!