If you’re looking for a side to bring a delicious and sophisticated twist to your meal for this evening, these sautéed French green beans with pancetta are the perfect choice for you. The entire dish is prepared in a single pan, so cleanup is painless. What’s more, the combination of the savory and nutty taste of the pancetta, the fresh crunch of the green beans, and the delightful tang of red wine vinegar make this an unforgettable side dish.
What is the difference between Green Beans and French Green Beans?
While they look quite similar, there are a couple differences between your regular green bean and their French cousins (Also known as haricot verts). Most importantly, French green beans are generally longer and thinner than “standard” green beans. This makes them cook more quickly and gives them a more complex, fresh-tasting flavor profile. Because of this difference, I highly recommend using French green beans or haricot verts for this recipe, as your results will be different if you use regular or string beans.
How to Prepare our French Green Beans
We start in this recipe by trimming both ends of our green beans, making them easier to eat and removing the stringy tips. After this, we will cook our pancetta in a dry pan. As we cook the pancetta, the fat in the meat quickly renders into the pan. This way, we will enhance the flavors of the green beans themselves by cooking them in the fat from the pancetta.
After your meat is crispy, remove it from the pan and add our green beans. Now, we sauté them on a medium high heat about 3 minutes, stirring them frequently. After this, we add our garlic and shallots and sauté them all together until we see the beans begin to blister. Once we see them blister, we will add our red wine vinegar.
After this, we will reduce the heat on our cooking surface and cover our pan. This steams our green beans, making them more tender and adding additional flavor as our green beans steam in vinegar.
Finally, we remove our green beans from the pan, tossing them with most of our pancetta, saving some to sprinkle on top at the end as our finishing touch.
Alterations and Substitutions
This recipe is particularly easy to alter, so never fear if you are missing one of the ingredients. You can very easily substitute bacon sliced into small strips for pancetta without greatly altering the taste of the recipe. If you don’t have shallots on hand, a diced yellow onion substitutes perfectly.
Finally, if you don’t have red wine vinegar, some balsamic vinegar will suit the dish well, though it does make it slightly higher in carbs. If you’re looking to add an extra touch to your final product, some sliced almonds on top as garnish adds a restaurant-level touch of class and some additional texture.
How do I Prevent my Beans from Getting Mushy?
When cooking French green beans, the biggest problem most people encounter is a mushy texture. The solution to this is simple. Mushiness is a result of your beans being overcooked. For this reason, it’s important to keep a close eye on your beans as they reach completion. We’re aiming to cook our beans to a lovely, slightly crisp “al dente” texture in this recipe. If you notice them becoming floppy, remove them immediately.
What Should I Prepare as a Main?
These green beans offer a crisp fresh taste with savory and nutty overtones from the pancetta mixed in. For this reason, they pair quite well with a heartier main dish. I highly recommend both our Easy Grilled Dijon Mustard Pork Tenderloin and our Instant Pot Low-Carb Short Ribs as good pairings. Additionally, this recipe for Easy Baked Italian Chicken Thighs by My Montana Kitchen will also suit this side wonderfully.
Low Carb Sautéed Green Beans with Pancetta (Keto)
These delightfully crisp green beans are sautéed with savory pancetta, garlic, and shallots, then finished with red wine vinegar for a simple, elegant keto side dish packed with flavor.
Ingredients
- 8 Ounces French Green Beans (Haricot Verts)
- 1 cup Pancetta cubed
- 2 small shallots (Or one large) sliced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- black pepper to taste
- sea salt to taste
- 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
Instructions
Wash, dry, and trim both ends of the green beans
Preheat skillet to medium heat, then add pancetta. Cook the pancetta until cooked through and crispy. (About 4 minutes) Next, strain them out of the leftover grease with a spoon or fork and set them aside. Take care to leave the remainder of the fat in the pan.
Add green beans to the pan, cooking them in the fat from the pancetta for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add the garlic and shallots to the pan and stir frequently for two minutes, Then, add red wine vinegar to the pan and stir before covering.
Allow the beans to steam for about a minute, removing the lid to stir periodically. Once tender but while still crisp and green, remove the beans from the heat.
Place beans in a serving bowl and add 2/3rds of the pancetta. Add salt and pepper to taste, then toss until pancetta is mixed throughout. Sprinkle remaining pancetta on top and serve.
