These miso greens beans are so full of flavor, they are anything but boring! The recipe takes about 15 minutes to make and round out any Asian meal beautifully. The umami-ruch miso butter coats the lightly browned green beans and creates a kind of glaze that makes you kind of want to lick the plate.

You don’t need to use all that much miso to make a big impact in a dish, as these green beans prove. Serve them with rice instead, so you can get every last bit of the flavorful sauce without having to resort to plate-licking. Try pairing these with Asian Salmon, Yaki Udon, or Teriyaki Chicken Kabobs.

Blistered Green Beans with Miso Butter: A simple miso-infused butter turns a pile of fresh green beans into a umami festival.

Ingredients

• Fresh lemon juice
• White miso paste – This fermented soybean paste comes in a number of colors/flavors/strengths. Usually, the lighter the miso, the more delicate the flavor — but having said that, even the lightest miso packs a nice wallop in terms of flavor and saltiness and umami, which is known as the fifth taste.
• Soy sauce
• Hot sauce – I usually use Sriracha in my Asian cooking.
• Butter – Use unsalted to control the amount of salt in this dish.
• Haricot verts or green beans – You can use either thin haricot verts or fatter green beans. Do make sure that they are nice and fresh and crisp — when you are cooking green beans this way, with no water or much liquid to speak of, they won’t really get “refreshed” the way they would if they were simmered in water. So the tenderness really needs to come from the beans themselves, not the cooking liquid.
• Garlic clove – Finely minced garlic makes the dish pop.

Fresh Green Beans

1. Make the sauce: In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice, miso paste, soy sauce, and hot sauce until well blended.
2. Cook the beans: In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the green beans and cook for a total of about 7 or 8 minutes, only flipping them a few times during the cooking process so that the beans get a nice bit of dark brown in spots where they are in contact with the pan.
3. Sauce the beans: Stir in the garlic, and pour in the miso sauce. Flip the beans around in the miso until they are nicely coated with the sauce.
4. Serve: Transfer to a plate and serve hot.

You can see these very attractive and flavorful beans here nestled alongside a plate of Mongolian Beef with white rice.

Variations

• Try this recipe with Brussels sprouts or broccoli florets as well. Or sliced carrots! I think a lot of vegetables would be great this way.
• Add some thinly sliced shallots along with the garlic.

What to Serve With Blistered Green Beans and Miso Butter

Chicken Katsu

Chicken Yakitori

Teriyaki Salmon

More Green Bean Recipes

• Honey Mustard Green Beans
• Green Bean Salad with Clementine Oranges and Feta
• Green Beans Two Ways
• Sautéed Haricot Verts with Red Onions and Shallots
• Green Beans with Chervil Vinaigrette
• Sautéed Green Beans and Oyster Mushrooms