How do you like to cook your green beans? Here at home we love to fry green beans or bitswelas (in Filipino) because it yields this distinct texture with its wrinkly skin but still with that nice bite. These Fried Green Beans with Garlic is a really easy yet delicious way to cook your green beans.

THESE GARLIC GREEN BEANS ARE:

Perfect enjoyed with your favourite noodles, rice, and tofu or served as a side
Easy to prepare
Requires very basic ingredients
Perfect for garlic lovers!
Perfect if you're looking for a new way to cook and enjoy your beans!
Tasty and easily customisable -- you can add other protein or vegetables of your choice when stir-frying!

PREPARING YOUR GREEN BEANS

Break apart the ends of your green beans and carefully remove the “veins”. If you prefer to chop your green beans in half or into shorter pieces, you can skip this part. We just do this at home since we keep our green beans whole.

Fresh green beans or bitsuelas with ends broken off in a plastic strainer with a catch basin

If washing your green beans, make sure to dry these well before frying to avoid any splashing.

GARLIC, LOTS OF GARLIC

If you're a big fan of garlic (like me), then feel free to use as much garlic as you want! I sliced mine into thin pieces to fry them and make crispy garlic 'chips' to add to the green beans. But roughly chopping the garlic is totally fine too!

A hand holding a clove of garlic over a bamboo cutting board while thinly slicing each clove

A plastic bowl filled with thinly sliced garlic for garlic chips

FRYING THE GARLIC AND GREEN BEANS

If you'd like to use less oil, you can dry-fry your beans. See the recipe notes in the card below for the complete steps.

Heat a large frying pan or wok with enough oil to submerge the green beans and garlic. Allow the heat the oil over medium high heat. (See recipe notes below if you prefer to dry fry your green beans)
Once hot, submerge the garlic and leave to crisp for 1-2 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oil and place on a strainer. Allow these to cool and crisp up while you cook the green beans.

A large wok filled with oil for frying the thinly sliced garlic

Golden brown pieces of thinly sliced garlic remove from the oil

NOW FOR THE GREEN BEANS:

Add the green beans into the pan or wok. You may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your pan/wok.
Fry the green beans for 3-4 minutes or until the green beans are wrinkly on the outside but still a bright green and firm. Make sure not to overcook the beans so these will still have that good bite. Remove the green beans from the oil and set aside.
Remove the oil from your pan/wok.

Green beans or bitsuelas completely submerged in sizzling hot oil in a large wok

Fried green beans or bitsuelas with a wrinkly skin on a strainer to drain excess oil

Over medium heat in the same wok/pan, add some minced garlic and stir-fry until golden brown.
Add in the green beans. Season with vegetarian oyster sauce or stir-fry sauce, salt, and pepper, to taste.
Mix well over medium high heat. Turn off the heat. Serve and place the crispy garlic chips. Enjoy immediately while hot!

A white ceramic plate with stiff-fried green beans topped with the crispy golden brown garlic chips

OTHER CHINESE RECIPES YOU MIGHT ENJOY:

Looking for more Vegan Asian recipes?

You can get a copy of my cookbook, Vegan Asian!

If you crave vegan-friendly versions of classic Asian dishes, this cookbook is packed with Southeast and East Asian dishes inspired by those I grew up enjoying at home and those I’ve tried from my travels. From iconic Thai dishes to piping-hot Japanese fare and everything in between, the recipes in this will take your palate on a delicious food trip across Asia, and hopefully keep you coming back for more!

Fried Green Beans with Garlic

5 from 2 votes

How do you like to cook your green beans? Here at home we love to fry green beans or bitswelas (in Filipino) because it yields this distinct texture with its wrinkly skin but still with that nice bite.These Fried Green Beans with Garlic is a really easy yet delicious way to cook your green beans.

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Prep Time 10

Total Time 10

Course Main Course

Cuisine Asian, Chinese, East Asian

Servings people

Calories 109 kcal

Ingredients

500 g green beans (bitswelas)
12-14 cloves garlic or more
Neutral Oil for frying
2 cloves garlic minced
1-2 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce or stir-fry sauce, to taste (see notes)
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Break apart the ends of your green beans and carefully remove the “veins”. If you prefer to chop your green beans in half or into shorter pieces, you can skip this part. We just do this at home since we keep our green beans whole.
If washing your green beans, make sure to dry these well before frying to avoid splashing.
Thinly slice your whole garlic cloves. Roughly chopping the garlic is totally fine too! Mince 2-3 cloves for stir-frying later on. Set aside.
Heat a large frying pan or wok with enough oil to submerge the green beans and garlic. Allow the heat the oil over medium high heat.
See notes below if you prefer to dry fry your green beans.
Once hot, submerge the garlic and leave to crisp for 1-2 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oil and place on a strainer. Allow these to cool and crisp up while you cook the green beans.
Add the green beans into the pan or wok. You may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your pan/wok.
Fry the green beans for 3-4 minutes or until the green beans are wrinkly on the outside but still a bright green and firm. Make sure not to overcook the beans so these will still have that good bite. Remove the green beans from the oil and set aside.
Remove the oil from your pan/wok.
Over medium heat in the same wok/pan, add some minced garlic and stir-fry until golden brown.
Add in the green beans. Season with vegetarian oyster sauce or stir-fry sauce (or other sauce of choice), salt, and pepper, to taste.
Mix well over medium high heat. Turn off the heat. Serve and place the crispy garlic chips. Enjoy immediately while hot!

Notes

Dry-Frying

Heat a large skillet or cast iron pan to medium high heat. Once hot, add in the oil.
Increase to high heat and then add in the green beans. Leave untouched for 2 to 3 minutes or until browned on one side. Move the beans around and repeat this step until the beans are blistered and slightly wrinkly, around 10 minutes in total. Remove the beans from the pan and set aside.
Since you’re not deep-frying, you can simple stir-fry the garlic chips in the oil after dry-frying the green beans.

Seasoning

If you don't have vegetarian oyster sauce/stir-fry sauce, you can use kecap maniss or sweet soy sauce. I have a homemade recipe here.
You can also use other sauces like teriyaki sauce (homemade recipe here) since this is an easily customisable recipe.

NUTRITIONAL INFO

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Hello there!

Welcome to The Foodie Takes Flight! Hi, I'm Jeeca, a food content creator and recipe developer passionate about creating easy yet tasty and flavour-packed vegan recipes. I share a lot of Asian recipes inspired by my travels and those I grew up enjoying.