Southern green beans and potatoes without meat

Total time 25 minutes

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This classic southern side dish is especially good in the summer when the beans are freshly picked!

Next time try my southern fried cabbage!

• ❤️ Why you'll love it
• 🧾 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 🎥 Video
• 🥫 Storage
• 💭 Tips
• 👩‍🍳 FAQs
• 📚 Related recipes
• 📞 The last word
• Southern Green Beans
• 💬 Comments

❤️ Why you'll love it

• Get the flavor of the traditional slow cooked recipe in a fraction of the time.
• Perfect side dish for so many main courses.
• Bacon. Bacon. Bacon.

If you're looking for a side dish that everyone loves, made with fresh vegetables, and goes with everything give these smothered green beans a try!

🧾 Ingredients

• If you prefer not to use seasoned salt you can use salt and pepper.
• You can use balsamic vinegar instead of cider vinegar.

🔪 Instructions

Step one

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
2. Add the beans and simmer for 5 to 8 minutes, or until they are as tender as you like them.
3. Drain and set aside.

Step two

1. Heat a heavy skillet and add bacon.
2. Cook, stirring often, until the bacon is crispy.
3. Add the onions and saute until they begin to soften.
4. Add the garlic and saute 2 minutes.

Step three

1. Add in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes.
2. Stir in the stock, seasoned salt, vinegar, and sugar.
3. Simmer, stirring often, until thickened.

Step four

1. Add the drained beans (and potatoes if you are using them).
2. Stir until the they are covered in the sauce.
3. Simmer for about 3 minutes, stirring often, until the vegetables are heated through.
4. Taste, adjust seasoning, and serve hot.

🎥 Video

Click on the image to watch me make this recipe from start to finish with extra tips! (Video opens in a new tab).

🥫 Storage

We almost never have leftovers when I make this for dinner! If you do, just store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Smothered green beans don't freeze well at all. They get mushy and the sauce separates.

• Use smoked sausage, turkey, or ham in place of the bacon. If you do that you'll need to add a few tablespoons of butter, oil, or bacon grease.
• You can set the cooked bacon aside when you add the rest of the ingredients then add it back in just before serving if you want to keep it crisper.
• We always grew the yellow wax beans along with pole beans. They're super pretty when mixed in this recipe.
• Add in diced, cooked potatoes. Make it easy by using canned potatoes, drained.
• Drain and rinse a can of red kidney beans and add them in with the other vegetables.
• Add a finely diced jalapeno with the onion.
• Use the flat, Italian style beans.
• If you like it spicy add a pinch or two of crushed red peppers.
• Add a tablespoon of soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce.

💭 Tips

Expert Tip: Use fresh green beans. Canned are too mushy for this recipe and frozen ones don't ever get the right texture. If you do use canned drain them well and only stir them in the sauce for a minute. You don't want them to cook at all - just heat through.

When we got fresh green beans, my mother would cook them up with potatoes, the broth forming a delicious “pot likker” that we would sop up with wedges of homemade corn bread. There would always be some black-eyed peas, lima beans, or other fresh field peas on the table, along with slices of home-grown tomato, summer-fresh corn on the cob, and maybe a pot of greens.

So, after a few days of eating out in some of the best vegan restaurants in the country, I came home and almost immediately cooked up an old-fashioned Southern meal. It felt good to get back to basics with some food that feeds my Southern soul.

Southern Flavor Tips

Browning the onion first (and then the garlic for a shorter time) adds a rich flavor to the broth. Don’t be tempted to throw them into the pot with the beans uncooked. Smoked salt or Liquid Smoke are essential to get the smoky flavor right, but if you add them too soon, the flavor dissipates, so be sure to wait until just before serving.

More Southern Vegan Dishes

If you’re looking for more homestyle Southern recipes, give these a try:

• Confetti Cornbread
• Sausage-Flavored Breakfast Beans and Grits
• Real Louisiana Red Beans and Rice
• Vegan Chicken Gumbo with Soy Curls
• Southern-Style Banana Pudding

5 from 3 votes

Homestyle Green Beans and Potatoes

I used a combination of small purple potatoes and tiny gold ones, but any small, new potatoes will do. Or, if you don’t have new potatoes, chop large potatoes into 3/4-inch cubes. But waxy new potatoes taste best in this and hold together better.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 4

Author Susan Voisin

Ingredients

• ▢1 large onion chopped or thinly sliced
• ▢2 cloves garlic minced or pressed
• ▢1 1/4 pound green beans trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
• ▢12 ounces small new potatoes halved
• ▢4-6 cups vegetable broth or “no-chicken” broth
• ▢freshly ground black pepper to taste
• ▢1/4 teaspoon smoked salt or liquid smoke
• ▢salt to taste (if using sodium-free broth)

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Instructions

• In a large Dutch oven or saucepan, cook the onion until it begins to brown, adding a splash of water when necessary to keep it from sticking. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

• Add the green beans and the potatoes and then add enough broth to barely cover the potatoes. Add black pepper to taste, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cover. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 15-20 minutes.

• Add the smoked salt or Liquid Smoke and cook for another minute. Serve with slotted spoon to reserve broth for another use or serve in a bowl with a piece of cornbread for sopping up all the flavorful broth.

  How do you season canned green beans without meat?

  Instructions.

  Drain half of the liquid out of the green beans..

  Pour the green beans and the reserved half of the canning liquid into a skillet..

  Add butter, onion powder, salt and pepper..

  Simmer, uncovered and stirring occasionally, until almost all of the cooking liquid has evaporated..