Green Beans and Tomatoes
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When you need a simple, quick, easy, and healthy Southern side dish to accompany your favorite main meal, try this recipe for last-minute green beans and tomatoes. It’s lightly seasoned, only needs 5 ingredients, and is ready in just 15 minutes.
In the continual search for something green to add to our meals, this green beans and tomatoes recipe is a great quick and easy Southern side dish that makes canned green beans delicious. I say this with surprise because, until I made them this way, there was nothing more un-delicious to me than a can of green beans. Usually, I only served green beans when I had time to fry up bacon and make them sweet and sour style.
I was skeptical when my friend, Heather, told me this recipe for last-minute green beans was her son’s absolute favorite side dish, but I tried it. I have to say, it has become one of our favorite side dishes, too. This is handy because you can keep the ingredients on hand easily enough and whip the recipe up at the last minute with very little thought (hence the nickname). Let me just say, it tastes great with my sticky chicken and maple-glazed pork chops. We do thorough taste-testing around here, of course!
So, what ingredients do you need on hand? Well, it’s super simple: cans of French green beans, an onion, a can of diced tomatoes, and salt and pepper. That’s it! Your green beans and tomatoes will be ready to eat in 15 minutes. Sound good?
P.S. I really don’t fret over whether or not I have something green on every supper table. One of my favorite meal combinations includes sides of creamed corn, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and rolls! But we try to toss some green in there (like these green beans and tomatoes) for good measure to keep all of our home economics teachers from rolling over in their graves. I have a home economics degree, so it’s my duty!
Now, time to make some last-minute green beans.
Recipe Ingredients
- Diced tomatoes
- French-style green beans (regular green beans work just fine)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Onion
Helpful Kitchen Tools
How to Make Last-Minute Green Beans and Tomatoes
First, chop your onion.
Drain your green beans and dump them into a pot.
Say hello to your green beans because they’re being all sweet and posing for you. They look like they are seeking approval. HELLO, GREEN BEANS! You look mighty pretty today!
Add chopped onion and canned tomatoes (with juice).
And salt and pepper to taste.
Stirry stirry.
Cook over medium-high heat until it just comes to a light boil.
Then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
The end result? A big bowl of green beans and tomatoes.
There are several serving suggestions below, but may I suggest some delicious chicken legs to accompany your green beans and tomatoes?
Storage
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop.
Recipe Notes
- You can also use fresh tomatoes or cherry tomatoes if you like. Just dice it up and go for it. Another option is to swap the diced tomatoes for canned fire-roasted tomatoes.
- To make them extra tasty, add a teaspoon of garlic powder or minced garlic cloves. You can also add a tablespoon of sugar or brown sugar if you want a touch of sweetness.
- For heat, you’ll want to add a pinch of cayenne pepper, paprika, or crushed red pepper flakes to this (whatever spice you have on hand).
- As mentioned, you can use either canned, fresh, or frozen green beans.
- If your saucepot isn’t non-stick, add a dash of olive oil or some butter to add flavor and ensure nothing sticks to the bottom.
- Just before serving, stir through 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley or chopped fresh basil if you like for Italian green beans and tomatoes (a very similar side dish).
- Some Southern versions of this dish add crumbled bacon bits too.
Recipe FAQs
What do you serve with green beans and tomatoes?
Now, I know I included quite a few serving ideas in the intro, but hey, here are some more:
- Serve them as a side with all sorts of main dishes, like Southern fried catfish, Southern fried chicken, pan-seared pork chops with velvet cream sauce, or pulled pork.
- They also work great as a side dish with pasta, like my slow cooker angel chicken pasta.
You may also like these other Southern side dish recipes:
Southern Deviled Eggs Recipe (Keto-Friendly)
Hush Puppies Recipe, Southern-Style
Ingredients
- 1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
- 2 14.5-ounce cans green beans, drained
- 1 chopped onion
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Place drained green beans in a medium saucepot. Add in chopped onion, tomatoes with juice, salt, and pepper. Stir.1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained, 2 14.5-ounce cans green beans, drained, 1 chopped onion, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- Place over medium-high heat and bring just to a light boil.
- Reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Serve.
Nutrition
If you pray for God to move a mountain, be prepared to wake up next to a shovel.
~Unknown. Submitted by Rick (thanks, Rick!)
The hardest letting go was when my 2 oldest girls left home to go to basic training for the Army. The next hardest letting go was when they left to go to AIT (specialized army training) and the next hardest letting go (even though they were already physically gone) was knowing they were being deployed to Iraq. The BESTEST thing was when they came home! 🙂
By the time my youngest left for college, it was a little easier to let go (college is a lot less scary for Mama than the army is). 🙂
And so it goes: field trips, college, real job after college and so on. Our “baby girl” is getting married this weekend! Enjoy every minute while they are growing up!
This made me tear up! My two year old seems to be growing by leaps and bounds and I know I will turn around one day and he will be 13 but for now, I am glad he is two. You can do it. Have fun decorating the chicken!
Oh Christy, I can so relate about letting go of kids.
Time flies and right now I am looking in the rear view mirror…
When our son was 13 (he’s our younger child) I watched him diggin’ fence post holes with his dad, working on fencing in a 15 acre pasture on our farm…
And part of me just said “wait! that’s my baby! That’s too hard for a kid…”
But then I realized that we are raising him to be a grown man one day.
Together they worked and finished that pasture- digging a hundred holes 30 inches deep, even into the clay sub-soil.
It gave him confidence [and muscles- and girls like muscles 😉 ].
(And all that hole diggin’ was a good thing- he helped us plant 55 pecan trees last January and we have 50 more to do this year. He’ll reap great benefits from that years after we are gone.)
He went away to 4-H camp every summer, state 4-H Congress from the age of 13, Boys State, and took on more and more challenges along the way.
He grew into a man before my eyes and at the same time I am so proud but can hardly believe it.
He’s in college now- three semesters until graduation- when did that happen?
You are right to hold on inside- treasure up these things in your heart.
I miss the boy who would climb trees to read to his Winnie-the-Pooh bear, but I am proud of the man he is becoming.
Oh, and I love your recipes! Thanks for inviting us into your kitchen- I feel right at home 🙂
Be blessed!
I am laughing at your Katy Rose story while crying over your Brady story! My son is 24 now and it can still be hard! Just wait until you are dropping him off at his dorm his freshman year of college! It’s all good, though! (Just remember that!)
Christy, it won’t get any easier when Katy Rose gets up there either. My babies [they hate that] are 46 and 50. But, they are still my babies. Never you mind that one of them has 4 babies of his own and the other has 1. Still my babies.
About those green beans. It also works when you use the regular beans, but the french-style beans are a whole lot prettier. Another quickie I like is to simply add some Dijon or Creole mustard to be beans just before serving. Gives them a nice tangy taste.
My kids are only 3 and 6 and I just cried! Cause like ya said, they were just born yesterday….. Right?! And I know mine will be leaving soon also. I cried my eyes out the first day I dropped my son off at kindergarten and he decided to walk in alone;)