Green Beans

Melissa and Jasmine Hemsley serve their skillet-tossed lettuce and green bean salad warm, topped with a buttery, tangy anchovy dressing. “I could eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” says Melissa. “When vegetables are served this way, there’s no way to feel like, ‘Oh, greens, I have to eat them.’ ”

Pim Techamuanvivit makes her own version of the Hong Kong-style condiment XO sauce. The briny, funky flavors transform green beans.

In this salad, tender haricots verts get tossed with crunchy strips of carrot, red pepper and parsnip. You can also make this recipe with bacon, but it's just as delicious without.

This supersimple bean-and-tomato salad, tossed with a tarragon-flavored dressing, is perfect for summertime picnics.

Most cooks boil, steam or sauté green beans, but grilling them—as Alex Seidel does here—gives them a delicious char that's superb with the lentils, pancetta and baked tomatoes in this salad.

This Georgian dish, called lobio (bean dish), is typically served cool, but with its buttery scrambled eggs and tender green beans, it's equally delicious hot. It's great as part of a family-style menu and also makes an unusually tasty, light main course.

This flavorful long-simmered dish is a nice change from the usual quick sautés, and it's an especially good method for overgrown beans that can be a little woody.

In the Indian state of Kerala, this curry-scented dish is a type of mezhukkupuratti, which means "coated in oil." It can be prepared with any type of vegetable. The hot green chiles and a full teaspoon of ground black pepper give this side dish an extra burst of heat; you can reduce the amount of both for a less spicy dish.

Barbara Lynch serves a haricots verts salad with a hazelnut vinaigrette. Here, she adds fresh chestnuts to give the dish a meaty fall flavor. Finely chopped dates in the cider vinegar dressing lend a lovely, subtle sweetness.

Called loobyeh (pronounced LOO-beh), this comforting vegetable stew is a staple in Lebanon. Rita Nakouzi’s recipe is a combination of her mother’s and aunt’s versions; only as an adult was she finally able to add as much garlic as she wanted. After years of making what by her own admission was “a garlic attack,” she says, “Now I’ve gotten better. It finally dawned on me, I don’t think everyone else likes garlic as much as I do.”

Alex Roberts learned the secret to great soffritto—an aromatic vegetable mixture used as a base for many Italian soups and sauces—while traveling through Tuscany. “The trick is to cook it really slow—otherwise the vegetables scorch,” he says.

These simple steamed green beans get a tangy kick from a quick cider vinegar sauce.

These creamy green beans feature a modern Spanish twist: goat cheese and smoky pimentón de la Vera in the sauce, plus a topping of toasted almonds.

This is Australian chef Neil Perry's variation on the Italian classic spaghetti vongole (pasta with clams). He adds green beans to make the dish fresher-tasting, and then finishes it with a sprinkling of Parmigiano-Reggiano.

"Blood oranges are part of my Sicily fascination," Renato Poliafito says. He uses the segments to add color and tang to green beans and reduces the juice with balsamic vinegar to make the dressing.

Scott Conant makes his crisp-tender beans with ground ginger, since freshly grated ginger invariably creates unappealing little chunks.

For his simple side dish, Dean Fearing sautés crisp green beans with caramelized salsify, toasted pecans and strips of intense country ham. At home, he jokingly calls them "all-day" green beans—in fact, they take about half an hour to prepare.

Instead of just steaming or boiling green beans, Katie Workman first sautés them in butter and garlic, then simmers them in chicken broth. For adults, she adds fresh herbs and citrus—both zest and juice—giving the beans a fresh, vibrant flavor.