How to make canned green beans taste better
If you love good green beans and crave that home-grown, slow cooked taste on your dinner table, you can actually get it from a canned green bean. Here’s every tip you need to make canned green beans taste better.
Tips for the best canned green beans
- Use a good beef bouillon like Better Than Bouillon. Certain brands of bouillon are very salty. Powdered ones are terrible. Please keep this in mind and start with half as much if you are afraid of over salting.
- Allow the beans to simmer until part of the liquid is cooked off then turn them off and let them sit on the stove at room temperature for a few hours. It’s fine to leave them there all day while you’re gone to work or you can put them in the fridge if that bothers you and do the second step when you get in.
- The final step is to bring them back to a low simmer and cook off the rest of the liquid and serve–that takes about 10 minutes or so.
- You can simmer some bacon or ham hock in with them if your bouillon isn’t too salty.
- Add bacon bits or sauteed onions at the end (optional).
To slow cook: Cook the beans on the stove as directed then transfer to a slow cooker to keep warm.
To make ahead: Cook half way and then cool to room temperature and refrigerate for up to 4 days. Rewarm on the stove or in a slow cooker.
To freeze: These do not freeze.
How to make canned green beans taste better
Just because your beans come canned and from a grocery store doesn’t mean they can’t have that classic slow-cooked flavor you crave. Easy steps and no-fuss.
Ingredients
- 2 14.5 ounce cans green beans of your choice canned in water
- 1 teaspoon beef bouillon base We tested with Better than Bouillon Beef base
Instructions
- In a medium sauce pan, empty in the cans of green beans with their water. Add the beef bouillon.
- Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook until the water reduces by 3/4. Turn off heat and set beans aside on the stovetop or in the fridge for one to two hours or overnight is fine.
- When ready to eat, bring the beans back to a simmer on the stove top and cook to remove the remaining water. Serve warm.
Nutrition
Calories: 63kcal
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I have many canned quarts from last years garden and need to use them up. My husband and I realized we don;t care too much for the mushiness of canned green beans. Won’t cooking them this long to evaporate the water make them even mushier?
Hey Susan, I can my own green beans so I understand your train of thought here. Depending on the variety of bean you raise you certainly will get some types that are softer or firmer after they are canned. Not being able to see yours or evaluate their texture makes it hard for me to say what will happen to yours, but we’re only talking about a total cook time of about 25 minutes or so total–not an all day event–so there shouldn’t be any issue. I use this process for my green beans all of the time and we don’t think anything of them being soft and “cooked down” as we call it. The beans hold their shape just fine and aren’t a pile of mush. You can certainly give them a try if you’d like. –Rachel
Should I wash the Green Beans and just cook them in tap water as opposed to the water from the canning process?? Seemed very salty last year when I tried this recipe with Better then Bouillon.
I think salt content in the water of canned beans can really vary a lot. I’ve never had trouble with mine being too salty, but maybe I’m buying a brand that you aren’t using. You could try buying salt free ones and then taste the water as you add the bouillon until it’s right. How does that sound? I’m a huge supporter of tasing things as you go to get the seasoning right, and the water from the beans sure won’t hurt you. –Rachel
Your photo looks like it has bacon and possibly onion sprinkled into the green beans. The recipe, posted, doesn’t mention these ingredients. Do you use them? If so, how and when, in the cooking of the green beans?
Well you certainly get the award for attention to detail Amy. Those were just bacon bits and I only put them on there to make the picture prettier. You don’t need ’em. 🙂 –Rachel
Can I mass produce these for a party do you think? And would add more bullion if I’m upping the amount of beans of keep the bullion the same?
Yes Whitney you sure can. Just be mindful of how much bouillon you throw in. Some brands are really more salt than they are flavor. Please note my recommendation in the post. You’d want one teaspoon of Better than Bouillon paste for every 28 ounces of beans. –Rachel
I just read your recipe and got a copy of it. Beef bouillon is what I’ve been missing all along and the cooking twice. I’m so excited to try this. I’m not one that cooks, so I’m going to surprise my family at thanksgiving and bring an actual dish!
Yes girl–you will be bringing a dish to Thanksgiving! Way to go! I will say to be very careful what bouillon you use. Some are so salty they ruin things. If you can get your hands on Better than Bouillon that’s what I want you to use. If not, get some of the cubes wrapped in foil and use just one cube per two cans of beans. You can do it! –Rachel
Hi, would this work in a slow cooker also? Maybe on low?
Stephanie the water won’t evaporate in a slow cooker, but you could do the “second cook” in there. Cook them down on the stove top first, then move them to the slow cooker when you are ready to reheat them and they should be just fine. Enjoy! –Rachel
My kind of recipe!! I love Better Than Bouillon…
Wow! So easy and so good. My family lived the beans. Thank you for the tasty tip.
Alan
So glad they worked for you Alan! –Rachel
What a clever idea! I didn’t have time to do all that as my dinner was literally in 15 minutes from finding your page, but I threw a cube in the bowl after heating the beans in the microwave for 3 minutes, stirred it a bit, threw it back in for 1 more minute, and let it sit until supper. Better flavor than anything I’ve ever managed to get out of canned beans!
Well that was bound to help some for sure Leia. If you ever get time to simmer them on the stove give that a try. You’ll like it even more! –Rachel
I have fresh greens beans I am going to can, do I put the beef bouillon in before I pressure cook?
Hey Betty, I actually pressure can my beans too but I don’t add the bouillon to mine. I just do it when I put them in the pot to cook. That way if you are using your beans in another recipe by chance you won’t have that beef flavor if you don’t want it. Just my thoughts. Thanks! –Rachel