Stir fried green beans are the best example of the magic power of Chinese cooking. Create a healthy dish using the minimum amount of protein and bring yourself the greatest satisfaction.
Fuchsia Dunlop highly praises Chinese home cooks at the beginning of Every Grain of Rice, for they way they transform humble and largely vegetarian ingredients into wonderful delicacies. Not only do the methods create a taste that delights the senses, but they also make sense in terms of health, economy, and the environment.
This is so true. And it’s a pity to see that these homestyle dishes are still not well known outside of China. Dishes like the vinaigrette spinach salad, bok choy with garlicky soy sauce, zucchini stir fry, braised radish, and stir fried bok choy with crispy tofu – they might seem really plain from their names. But once you try them, you’ll be hooked, as well as surprised that such a simple plate of veggies can taste so good.
The stir fried green beans fall into the same category.
They require very little prep and just five minutes to cook. You can top them on a bowl of steamed rice or noodles. They use a minimal amount of meat to bring you a very satisfying meal. The best part is that the leftovers taste even better, and you can even use them to make fried rice.
Cooking tips
The only part that is slightly time consuming is chopping the beans into small pieces. To do it faster, line up a few beans and chop them together at the same time. Or you can use a pair of kitchen shears to cut a few at a time.
The seasoning in this dish is very flexible. If you have any Sichuan spicy sauce (such as lao gan ma), you can replace doubanjiang with that. If you like a less spicy dish, use 1 tablespoon hot sauce and add salt (or soy sauce) at the end, to taste. If you have homemade chili oil, use a big spoon of oil and chili flakes, with a tablespoon of oyster sauce (or hoisin sauce).
This dish is intended to be pungent, spicy, and quite salty, so you can finish a bowl of rice with it to satisfy your stomach. But if you don’t want any carbs in your meal, cut the hot sauce to one tablespoon (and maybe add a bit of soy sauce at the end).
If you do not want to add any meat into the dish, you can skip the “marinade” part of the recipe, as well. But I do suggest you use a bit of oyster sauce or hoisin sauce to enhance the flavor.
I always prefer to make a big batch of these beans, so I can have some leftovers for lunch the next day. They heat up well. And the leftovers will be even more flavorful. One thing I enjoy doing is using leftover rice and these green beans to do a simple fried rice – basically just heat them up together really quickly. You can even add a bit more veggies into it (stir fry the veggies with a bit of oil until half cooked; add the rice and green beans; cook until everything heats up evenly).
If you like green beans, you might also want to check out my Szechuan Dry Fried Green Beans, Curry Pork and Green Beans Stir Fry, and Green Beans with Spicy Peanut Sauce.
Stir Fried Green Beans with Ground Pork (豆角炒肉末)
Ingredients
Marinade
- 4 ounces (120 grams) ground pork (or ground turkey or ground beef)
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (or Japanese sake, or dry sherry)
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce (or soy sauce)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Stir fry
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil (or vegetable oil0
- 1/4 cup chopped green onion (or onion)
- 1/2 pound (230 grams) green beans
- 2 tablespoons doubanjiang spicy fermented bean paste (*see footnote)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- Combine ground pork, Shaoxing wine, dark soy sauce, and ginger in a small bowl. Mix well and let marinate for 5 minutes.
- Snip tough ends from the green beans and discard ends. Chop into 2/3-cm (1/4-inch) pieces.
- Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet (or a wok) and heat over medium heat until warm. Add green onion. Cook until it starts to sizzle. Add ground pork. Cook and stir until the surface is cooked. Add doubanjiang and sugar. Continue stirring until mixed well.
- Add green beans. Stir to mix well, cooking for 1 minute.
- Cover skillet and turn to medium low heat. Cook until the green beans are cooked through, about 2 to 3 minutes. You typically won’t need to add water during this process. But if you’re using oyster sauce or hoisin sauce to replace the spicy bean paste, it might get burnt if the skillet is too hot. Uncover and check on the beans every 1 minute. If they’re drying out too much, swirl in 2 tablespoons water, cover, and continue cooking.
- Transfer to a serving plate and serve warm over steamed rice (or boiled noodles, or top on noodle soup).
- Save the leftovers in an airtight container and store it in the fridge for up to 2 days. To reheat, you can use the microwave or a skillet.
Notes
- The dish will be quite spicy if you use 2 tablespoons of doubanjiang. For a less spicy dish, replace 1 tablespoon doubanjiang with 1 tablespoon oyster sauce or hoisin sauce (or homemade hoisin sauce). In this case, you can ignore the sugar since oyster sauce and hoisin sauce already contains sugar.
This looks delicious– I am super boring when I go out to Chinese restaurants, and order stir fried green beans EVERY time 🙂 That’s when I am in the States, which is only once or twice a year, though! I just love them in Chinese sauces.
The restaurant I go to doesn’t make them with meat though- just green beans, black bean sauce or garlic sauce.
I am going to have to try to make them here so I can get my Chinese fix!
I order green beans at Chinese restaurants all the time too 🙂 Because they’re delicious!
Oh yeah, it’s totally fine to make them without meat. My mom usually cook the beans with sauce without meat. On the other hand, I can’t help but adding meat to all my dishes! lol
The black bean sauce and garlic sound so yummy! Going to try it out next time 🙂
Add a quarter cup plum sauce to 8 servings of recipe as was too salty from the base sauces, the plum sauce balanced it nicely.
I so agree Maggie. When we traveled through China from Beijing, Xian to Shanghai every meal was beautiful, delectable, simple in ingredients and EVERYTIME the star of the dish was NOT the protein. It made me re-think Chinese food and how the American versions of so many dishes have been altered. Love the fermented bean paste in this, too. Beautiful!
Right on the money! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the real Chinese food Kevin 🙂 I admit Chinese cuisine does a very good job at cooking vegetables. I really hope there will be more real Chinese restaurants open in the US.
I’d like to make this for my kids. They can’t eat spicy. Can i eliminate doubanjiang from the recipe?
Hi Yasin, I suggest you to replace the doubanjiang with soy sauce, or some savory seasoning such as oyster sauce or miso paste for a non-spicy flavor. This way the vegetables and ground meat will still taste very flavorful. Let me know if you have further questions!
made this with chili paste instead of bean paste and it still came out great! it was a good way to use up our green beans since we always overbuy.
i liked that this recipe was super quick, easy to make & tasty
I made it without the spicy bean paste
Kids ate it with no complaining. Whew!
And the husband had it for leftovers the next day and described it as “Very delicious”, which is very unusual for him.
A hit in our household.
Although I am going to try a tiny bit of black bean sauce next time to try and get my kids use to it. 🙂
Hi Karen, I’m glad to hear your family loves the dish as well! Yes I was just about to suggest the black bean sauce. It works so well in this dish, plus it’s not spicy. Definitely try it out next time 🙂
I see sugar in the ingredients list but not in the instructions?
I followed the variation which substitutes in 1 tbsp oyster sauce, omitted the sugar, and it tasted good.
Is sugar more relevant when using 2 tbsp of Doubanjiang?
Hi Derek, thanks for pointing it out. I just added the sugar to the recipe.
Actually you don’t need the sugar if using some oyster sauce since it contains sugar already. I just added the information to the recipe note.
I’m glad to hear you like the dish 🙂
Found the doubanjiang , Pixian brand I think, the stuff has a great taste.
Have a ton of beans from the garden so made it with hoisin and doubanjiang 1T each , couldn’t stop eating it.
next time may go like the recipe for more spice, wasn’t even close to too salty.
Can’t wait to try your other recipes .
Thanks
Mark
Hi Maggie,
I recently stumbled upon your website and it has been such a great addition to my life, so thank you very much! My boyfriend and I absolutely love this recipe. It is so simple and delicious. I’ve made it with various types of ground meat, and last night added some cabbage I had on hand that needed to be used up. It’s really delicious!
Thank you for such a great resource.
Hi Kate, thanks for leaving a comment and I’m so glad to hear you like the dish 🙂
This, as usual with your recipes dear Maggie, is DELICIOUS! Fast, easy and simply excellent.
I make it often and we LOVE it!
谢谢
ls from Montreal, Canada
So happy to hear you like it 🙂 It’s one of my favorites too because it’s so fast to put together.
I love this quick and easy recipe! Ever since I upgraded my Chinese pantry (thank you Mala Market) I look to Omnivores Cookbook blog for recipes when I have no idea what I will cook for the week (the photos help in convincing me of which recipe to choose). Again, this recipe is great – I have even used thin cut “minute steak” beef when in a rush, rather than the pork.