Sri Lankan green beans stir-fry

A quick and easy way to make delicious Sri Lankan green beans stir-fry without destroying the beautiful green color. 

My mom makes her green beans beautiful and green. She has this amazing recipe where she fries thinly sliced green beans in salted butter garlic and onion. That’s it. And it’s so damn delicious. A dish that she always makes to accompany Sri Lankan yellow rice. If you don’t have any of the following ingredients, just thinly slice green beans and fry in butter and you’re fine. 

This is my version of my mom’s Sri Lankan green beans stir-fry. I wanted to make it a little more complex with my favorite ingredients. I love garlic so much in my dishes and I also love curry leaves and coconut oil. I also reckon when a bit of turmeric powder added, it can elevate the green color a lot better. 

I added some Maldive fish flakes to this Sri Lankan green beans stir fry because I really like the slight umami flavor it gives out to the dish. But if you’re a vegan, or you can find this ingredient, you can definitely skip this.

Here are all tips I know to keep the green beans green and beautiful:

1. Cut your green beans very thinly. So they get cooked quicker. 
2. Use a big pan and it should distribute heat pretty evenly throughout the pan. So everything cooks on the same heat. 
3. Stir continuously and don’t cover the pan at any time. 
4. Remove the greens from the pan to a serving plate to stop further cooking. 
5. And use a nonstick pan if you can. If not, be generous with the amount of oil you use. If your ingredients stick to the bottom of the pan, you won’t be able to put up a beautiful green dish with all the blackened bits at the bottom.

If you love this dish, I think you’d like my vegan green bean coconut milk curry too. Don’t forget to check that out.

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5 from 2 votes

Sri Lankan green beans stir-fry

Author: Roshani Wickramasinghe Cooking Method: Stir-Fry Cuisine: Sri Lankan Recipe Keys: Vegan Vegetarian Meals

Difficulty: Beginner Prep Time 10 mins Cook Time 6 mins Total Time 16 mins

Servings: 4

Description

A quick and easy way to make delicious Sri Lankan stir-fried green beans without destroying the beautiful green color. 

Ingredients

Servings

• 200 g green beans thinly sliced
• ¹⁄₄ tsp black pepper or more if you like the peppery flavor
• ¹⁄₄ tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp Maldive fish flakes/Umbalakada
• ¹⁄₂ tsp salt
• 1 green chili thinly sliced (use more if you like this hot)
• ¹⁄₄ g onion thinly sliced (50g) (50g)
• 3 garlic cloves sliced
• 1 sprig curry leaves sliced
• 2 tsp coconut oil

Instructions

1. Thinly slice green beans. Add black pepper, turmeric powder, sliced green chili, Maldive fish flakes(Umbalakada), and salt. Mix well with your hands.
   
2. Heat coconut oil in a nonstick skillet. Use a bigger skillet than you think you need. Add sliced garlic and sliced curry leaves. Fry for a few seconds. Don't wait until they get brown.
   
3. Now add thinly sliced onions. Fry for few more seconds and add the green beans.
   
4. After you add the beans Cook about 4- 5 mins stirring continuously. When you keep stirring you'd see that the color intensify and turn into bright vivid beautiful color. Stop cooking any further at this moment.
   
5. When it's done, change the beans to a serving bowl to make it stop from cooking any further.

Keywords: green bean, stir fry, stir-fry, vegan, veggies, vegetarian, stir fried beans, green beans