A simple side dish, these Sautéed Green Beans with Cherry Tomatoes are a great way to add veggies to your menu. So fresh and full of flavor!
Buy some extra green beans for green bean side dishes all week long! Because after you try these Sauteed Green Beans with Cherry Tomatoes, you’ll also want to try these Sesame Green Beans as well as this Fresh Green Bean Salad with Asian Dressing.
I often think that coming up with side dishes is harder than the actual main dish. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to complicate things. So easy is always better.
These Sauteed Green Beans with Cherry Tomatoes are fast, delicious – and most of all, EASY! This is not a side dish that you’ll get overwhelmed by as you are trying to pull together everything else for dinner.
What You Need
- Fresh Green Beans – luckily, you can usually find these year round these days. See my notes below about substitutions.
- Butter – I use unsalted butter, and add in salt. If you use salted butter, skip the extra salt and just add it to taste.
- Sugar – I know this isn’t a typical ingredient for a vegetable side dish, but the sugar brings out the slight sweetness from the vegetables, especially the tomatoes. If your tomatoes are extra sweet, you could probably skip this.
- Garlic Powder – you could definitely use fresh, minced garlic instead, but the garlic powder is easy.
- Salt and Pepper – amounts are included, but I always like to add to taste.
- Cherry Tomatoes – you could also use grape tomatoes, which is what I usually use if using store bought tomatoes. You could technically dice a tomato and use that, as well, but it might get mushy on you.
- Basil – this adds a bit of freshness at the end. Feel free to use parsley, or any other fresh herb of your choice.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Do you have to trim green beans?
When you buy fresh green beans, there will be one end – the stem end – that is rough. You’ll want to trim this off before starting the recipe. It’s really easy – I just line up a few beans at a time and slice them all at the same time.
Can you use frozen green beans instead of fresh?
One of the things I love the most about this recipe is that the green beans are still crisp, but cooked at the same time. If you use frozen green beans, you’ll lose most of that fresh snap from the beans. So technically, you can, but I would definitely suggest fresh green beans. And I wouldn’t suggest canned green beans at all.
Do I have to add the tomatoes?
No! I love the burst of flavor, but if tomatoes aren’t your jam, or if you don’t have them, this recipe is great without them, as well.
More Easy Side Dishes
Glazed Carrots – this one is a family favorite!
Roasted Asparagus – you can never go wrong with roasted vegetables, and this Roasted Asparagus is no exception.
Creamy Baked Asparagus – a little different than the asparagus recipe above, but full of flavor.
Avocado and Tomato Salad – if you are a tomato lover, this one is for you. I love the different textures, and this just has so much flavor!
Herbed Tomato Salad – maybe the fastest side dish on this list, this is one that requires no cooking and is full of fresh flavor.
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Sautéed Green Beans with Cherry Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs fresh green beans trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 10 oz cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
Instructions
- Place green beans in a large saucepan and cover with water. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan and simmer until the green beans are tender, about 10 minutes. Drain off the water and set aside.
- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in the sugar, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are soft. Stir the green beans into the tomatoes and heat for another minute or two, until the beans are heated through. Stir in the basil and serve immediately.
Rachael Stadterman says
I had tomatoes and green beans to use up and found this recipe– so glad I did! I made it as written using brown sugar instead of white because that’s all I had (I’ll keep this change for the next time too!) and I added grated parmesan cheese at the end which I decided wasn’t necessary — YUM
Deborah says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Rachael!
MM says
This recipe was a great start! We had cherry tomatoes to use up (extras from another recipe), as well as a bag of green beans. I boiled the beans for 8 minutes so they were still a bit crunchy, and next time I’ll cut back on the sugar because these seemed a little too sweet to me. But it turned out great! I think adding some minced garlic and subbing out EVOO for half of the butter would be great, too! I’m definitely keeping this recipe as a go-to with those few modifications!
Wendy Dennis says
I loved this, and so did my husband, even though he typically likes his veggies plain. I especially loved this because I needed to use up some of our cherry tomatoes. 🙂 I was going to add some grated parm for “husband appeal” but forgot and he was fine with it as written. Thank you!
Sandra J says
Great recipe to use the garden green beans and cherry tomatoes. Really tasty. Only modification I made was to cook the veggies for for less time so the beans were slightly crunchy and tomatoes were slightly cooked, rather than cooked down. I’ll make this again!
Rene says
Looks great! Have you ever made in advance and heated up the next day?
Deborah says
I haven’t. I think it would be best the day of, just because the vegetables might get a little soggy. But it would still be delicious as leftovers!
Deb b says
These are the best green beans I’ve ever had I added a little bit of onion to the garlic Sautee. I would love to can these.have you ever tried to can them?
Deborah says
Hi Deb – I’m afraid I don’t do very much canning at all so I don’t have any words of advice for you. I’m glad you’ve enjoyed them, though!
Karen helmecy says
I am making this for Easter dinner can I add a vinegar and olive oil dressing
Deborah says
I haven’t tried it, but I am guessing it would add some great flavor.
Roseann Ivanovich says
Picked the veggies from my garden and followed the directions exactly! Oh my! This was so good!!!
Tiffany F says
This was AMAZING. I used less sugar than it said and they were still fantastic. (Also slightly less butter and added some EVOO). YUM! Even my kids ate them.
Sandy says
Great recipe-I’m only removing a star because I don’t agree with your cook times. Steaming or simmering the beans (I use fresh) for 10 minutes would turn them to mush. I do 4 minutes max to keep them tender crisp. The tomatoes only need a minute or two total to get them soft. But the flavors were great-I added a little feta cheese at the end-that was my only change other than times.
TamC. says
I loved this recipe. Didn’t have basil but still delicious! I used one skillet. I put the beans in a strainer to the side.
TJ says
I left out the sugar (the tomatoes were so sweet) and the garlic (because I’m sensitive to it), and it still turned out delicious. Family loved it.
Izelle says
Delicious! And so easy.
mary says
hi hi hi
what a nice website
thanks
Sharon says
Loved them. More importantly, the hubs loved them. Great change from just green beans. The only thing I changed was adding the tomatoes at the very end and stirring til they were heated. We didn’t care for how soft they got. Other than that, awesome.
Kristen says
Sugar?
Deborah says
Sorry about that – don’t know how I missed adding it! The recipe has been updated.