I love fresh green beans in the summertime. It brings back so many memories of delicious meals made from fresh vegetables from our family garden. Green beans, new potatoes, fresh corn…always served with cornbread and a green onion on the side.
I give my husband a hard time about being a picky eater but thankfully, even he loves green beans. I struggled for years to get my fresh green beans to turn out just right-meaning, to taste like Mom’s. And I’m still not there 100%. But these Instant Pot Country Style Green Beans are the closest I’ve gotten to hers and by far, the easiest.
Cooking green beans on the stove top requires time and patience. And I always struggled with the right amount of water. Oftentimes, my beans would have too much water and too little flavor. This Instant Pot method is a real game changer and time saver.
I call these beans “country style” because I use meat to flavor and they are cooked to a softer consistency than green beans are in other parts of the country. They are definitely not crisp but I don’t like mine cooked to mush either. They still hold their shape.
For meat flavoring, I like to use salt pork which we called “fat back”. It’s basically just fattier, thicker bacon. And you can use bacon in a pinch if you can’t find salt pork in your grocery. I am able to find it at both Kroger and Wal-Mart here in Central Kentucky.
Instant Pot Country Style Green Beans
You’ll need: 1 1/2 half pound of green beans-broken, trimmed and washed
1 or 2 slices of salt pork or bacon
1 cup of water
3/4 tsp of salt
Start by breaking up your beans and giving them a good wash.
Set your Instant Pot to “Sauté” and let the pot heat up. You want the pot very hot when you add in the salt pork. Once it’s hot give the pot a shot of cooking spray, add in your salt pork and let it brown. This will render out the fat and flavor. Leave the lid off during the whole sauté process.
If you are using bacon, let it crisp up. If you use salt pork, it will not crisp up like bacon because it’s too thick. It will brown slightly though.
Once your meat is brown, hit Cancel. Add in one cup of water. With a heavy spoon, scrape the bottom of the pot so that you’re getting all of the browned bits out.
Add in your green beans and salt and give them a stir. Put the lid on your Instant Pot, seal it tight and pressure on High for 6 minutes. Let the pot do a natural release for 10 minutes, then release the steam (be careful!). Remove the lid once the pressure is fully released (for my Pot, the pin drops when pressure is released).
Enjoy!
For a tasty option, you can also add new potatoes to the top of your beans before you start cooking. New potatoes are so tender and soft that they cook up perfectly in the same amount of time.
I highly recommend cornbread to go with your beans. I usually don’t care if I have meat or not when we have these “garden” meals but last week, I made some salmon patties to go along with my beans, corn and potatoes and it was an awesome plate if I say so myself.
If you haven’t taken the Instant Pot plunge yet, Amazon has this one marked down right now.
From the heart and from the holler,
Minda