Green Bean Quinoa with White Beans & Almonds

Name: Green Bean Quinoa with White Beans and Almonds
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 17 min
Ingredients: 1 cup quinoa; 2 cups water; 3/4 pound green beans, (trimmed and sliced into 1-inch long pieces); 1 garlic clove, (minced); 1 teaspoon whole grain mustard; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; 1/4 teaspoon black pepper; 1 lemon, (juice & zest); 3 tablespoons olive oil; 15- ounce can white beans, (drained and rinsed (cannellini beans, great northern beans or navy beans)); 3 scallions, (thinly sliced); 1 cup baby arugula; 1/4 cup chopped parsley; 1/3 cup crumbled feta; 1/4 cup roughly chopped almonds

By Paige Adams

on Nov 08, 2024

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With lemon, almonds and fresh herbs, this green bean quinoa is an easy side dish recipe. While the quinoa cooks on the stove, you simmer the green beans in a couple minutes and make the lemon vinaigrette. Then you stir the quinoa with the green beans, white beans, arugula, chopped almonds, crumbled feta, scallions and parsley and drizzle in the dressing.

If you’re looking for another side dish option with this vegetable, then try these oven-roasted green beans or this fresh green bean salad.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe
The Ingredients
How To Make This Green Bean Quinoa
Serving
Make-Ahead Tips, Storage & Leftovers
Recipe Tips
More Quinoa Recipes
Green Bean Quinoa with White Beans and Almonds Recipe

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

It is a more interesting and healthier way to prepare green beans for holiday meals. You can do better than green bean casserole for Thanksgiving while still including this traditional ingredient on your table.

There is so much fresh flavor in this side dish, so it’s great for big dinners With green, beans, citrus and herbs, you will enjoy having this veggie-forward recipe that lets the vegetables be the feature.

This is a stovetop recipe. When there is peak competition for oven space, it is essential that not everything needs to be roasted.

You can serve it at room temperature. For Thanksgiving and Christmas, timing is always tricky. It is helpful to have recipes that are fantastic at room temperature and don’t have to be served warm.

The Ingredients

Ingredients including green beans, white beans, quinoa, lemon, almonds, feta, olive oil, arugula, scallions, salt and pepper.

This is what you need:

Green beans should be bright green without any yellow or brown spots. They should snap when you bend them. You can buy them in packages already trimmed.
Quinoa: It is fine to use white, red or black quinoa or a blend of all three. It comes down to looks and what you have in your pantry. You just simmer the quinoa in water.
White beans: You can use cannellini beans, great northern beans or navy beans. It just depends on whether you want small, medium or large beans.
Baby arugula gives the quinoa a peppery and mustardy bite. You can substitute with baby spinach.
Scallions add mild green onion flavor.
Feta gives the quinoa a salty accent. You can substitute with crumbled goat cheese. If you are vegan, use a plant-based dairy substitute or leave out the cheese.
Almonds add nutty crunch. I like roughly chopping the nuts instead of using sliced or slivered almonds because then the pieces don’t all end up the same size.
Parsley: The quinoa has lots of chopped fresh parsley to give it good herby flavor taking inspiration from a classic tabbouleh salad.
Garlic: There is a minced garlic clove in the dressing, but it doesn’t make the quinoa garlicky. This is about layering in different flavors.
Whole grain mustard helps to emulsify the dressing.
Lemon: When a recipe calls for a lemon, always use fresh lemon juice for the best taste.
Olive oil: Go with high quality extra virgin olive oil.
Kosher salt & black pepper season the dressing and the entire dish.

How To Make This Green Bean Quinoa

1. Simmer the quinoa. Combine the quinoa and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat. The water should be absorbed and the grains should be tender in about 11-12 minutes. Let the quinoa sit covered for 5 minutes. Then fluff it with a fork.

2. Cook the green beans. Bring large pot pot of salted water to a boil. Then simmer the green beans for just 2-3 minutes until they are tender but still crisp. Use a slotted spoon or spider to immediately transfer them to a bowl of very cold water. This will stop them from cooking.

Cooked quinoa in a pot. Cooked green beans in a bowl of ice water.

3. Make the dressing. Stir the garlic, mustard, salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil in a small bowl.

4. Combine the ingredients including the quinoa, green beans, scallions, arugula, lemon zest, parsley, feta and almonds in a large bowl.

Lemon dressing in a small bowl. Quinoa ingredients in a large bowl.

5. Drizzle the dressing into the quinoa. Toss to combine.

Quinoa tossed together with the dressing.

Serving

Besides being a holiday side dish, you can also enjoy this quinoa for lunch or dinner on a regular day. Serve it as a main dish with nothing else or pair it with hearty vegetable soup, creamy chickpea soup or roasted tomato soup.

Make-Ahead Tips, Storage & Leftovers

You can make the quinoa and dressing up to 2 days in advance. Store them in separate airtight containers in the fridge. Then let them sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes before combining them with the rest of the ingredients. If you do have leftovers, you can keep them in the refrigerator up to 3 days. I recommend also stirring in fresh arugula.