Vegan Green Beans (Roasted with Lemon and Garlic)

These vegan green beans are roasted to perfection with delicious lemon and garlic. It’s an irresistible side dish that’s easy to make and creates a crowd-pleasing accompaniment to any meal.

The beans come out of the oven with a perfect crispness to them. They’re also packed with flavor from just 5 basic ingredients!

Skill: Easy | Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Get the Veg Out newsletter for new vegan recipes + nutrition content!

This post contains affiliate links (including Amazon Associates) and I earn from qualifying purchases.

How to Prepare Delicious Green Beans

While there’s nothing wrong with steaming green beans, you can do so much better than that! With little effort and a couple extra flavors, it’s easy to turn them into a spectacular side dish. You’ll want to eat a whole plate of them!

Roasting vegetables is truly one of the simplest and most delicious ways to prepare them. Green beans are no exception even though they’re not commonly roasted.

With a light touch of oil and salt you can make any vegetable taste great! Take a small step further by adding lemon and garlic and you’re quickly on your way to a delicious side dish.

These lemon garlic green beans won’t last long; they certainly didn’t in my house.

Ingredients and Substitutions for Vegan Green Beans

This recipe uses 5 basic ingredients to create a mouth-watering and truly irresistible side dish. They include:

• Green beans: Green beans are a delicious vegetable that tastes amazing when roasted! You may call these string beans, French beans or wax beans (the yellow variety) but they’re essentially the same and any variety should work for this recipe.
• Garlic: Roasted garlic may be one of the most delicious flavors ever. By adding garlic to green beans as they roast, you pack in tons of flavor!
• Lemon: If you’ve ever roasted vegetables and thought they’re missing something, it was probably some acidity. Whether from citrus or vinegar, acidic ingredients truly make for a standout recipe. Lemon brightens the green bean and garlic flavor to create a stunningly delicious side dish. Play around with other citrus or vinegars for endless variety!
• Olive oil: Roasting vegetables requires some oil, but this helps create a satisfying and satiating side dish. Any type of liquid oil can work well for this recipe.
• Salt: Some salt rounds out and elevates other flavors in the dish. Add to your taste preferences; anywhere from ¼ – ½ tsp is good for this recipe.

How to Make Vegan Green Beans: Instructions and Tips

This recipe is incredibly easy to make and comes together in 3 simple steps! Check out the written and video directions below to make it perfectly on your first try.

Step 1: Prep Ingredients

Wash and trim your green beans. Trimming means to remove the bean’s top stem (the bottom is perfectly good to leave). Cut the beans into smaller lengths if you like.

Mince 3 cloves of garlic as well. I use a garlic press to make this easy.

Grab a lemon and squeeze 1 tbsp of juice from it. Slice the rest of it to roast on top of your green beans. I like to juice the ends of the lemon while leaving nice, large slices for roasting.

Step 2: Toss Ingredients Together

Prep your baking tray by covering it with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper (for easy clean-up).

Add the green beans, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and salt to your tray and toss to mix everything well. Make sure you’ve coated all the beans with olive oil and lemon juice, and that the garlic is evenly distributed amongst your beans.

Spread the beans into an even layer on your baking tray, then top with lemon slices (if using).

Step 3: Roast and Serve

Preheat your oven to 400 °F. When up to temperature, place the tray of green beans in and cook for 12-15 minutes.

Your beans should be mostly bright green when ready, with some browning. You can roast for longer to get more browning or more well-done beans. When they’re still bright green they’ll have a nice crunch to them!

Don’t be alarmed if your garlic turns slightly blue! This happens when a lemon’s acidity reacts with the garlic.

Serve the green beans hot, shortly after removing them from your oven.

How to Serve this Recipe: Create a Balanced Vegan Meal

I consider a balanced meal one that contains a good source of plant-based protein, carbohydrates, fats and lots of vegetables or fruits.

This vegetable side dish is a truly delicious way to prepare fresh green beans! Along with being a tasty vegetable, the recipe also contains healthy fats from olive oil.

It’s intended to be served alongside protein and carbohydrates to create a balanced meal. Any protein and carb combination can work; some of my favorites include:

• Seitan and mashed/roasted/baked potatoes
• Lentil loaf
• Marinated baked tofu and rice
• Plant-based burgers
• Frittata

Vegan Green Beans Variations

These roasted green beans are irresistible as-is, but there’s also plenty of ways you can change the recipe.

One of my favorite variations is to replace the olive oil with sesame oil, and the lemon juice with lime juice. This pairs well with tofu and rice for simple and delicious dinner!

You can also enhance the recipe by adding some chopped onion, slivered almonds or chopped walnuts. Serving topped with vegan Parmesan is also delicious!

How to Store Leftovers

Place leftovers into an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 5 days. You can reheat the green beans in a microwave or return them to an oven heated to 350 °F until warm.

I hope you enjoy this recipe! If you make it, please rate and comment below so others benefit from your experience.

More Deliciously Vegan Side Dishes

Join the Community for Vegan Recipes