Crunchy, juicy Chinese Long Beans! Quickly stir-fried with minced garlic, soy and oyster sauce. Takes only 10 minutes to cook!
Why These Chinese Long Beans Are So Good
- Perfectly crisp long beans.
- A flavorful Chinese side dish, perfect for a wide variety of mains.
- Super simple, 10 mins to make.
- You can add some heat with chilies or keep it mild – both delicious.
Ingredients
- Chinese Long Beans
- Cooking oil
- Minced garlic
- Water
- Oyster sauce
- Soy sauce
How To Make These Chinese Long Beans – Step By Step
- Heat up your wok, add oil. When shimmering, add minced garlic. Fry just for a few seconds until fragrant. You want to make sure that you don’t wait too long before adding the garlic to the oil, otherwise the oil will be too hot and the garlic will burn.
- Add your long beans, fry in wok for 30 seconds, tossing the garlicky oil all over the beans.
- Add water, oyster sauce and soy sauce. Cover the wok. Let the beans steam for 5 minutes on medium heat.
- Check to see if beans are almost tender, but not too soft. If not, re-cover and steam an additional 1 minute. Uncover, let the rest of the liquid evaporate, about an additional minute.
What Are Chinese Long Beans?
The long bean is also known as the long-podded cowpea, asparagus bean, snake bean, or Chinese long bean. They have a very pronounced flavor and have a distinctly beany taste, and are not sweet like the green bean.
Choosing The Best Long Beans
The other day, I stopped by Sweetbay Supermarket by my home and found a bunch of Chinese Long Beans. They come in long bundles – typically they are 12″ – 30″ long, hence the nickname, “Yard Long Beans.” The best tasting Chinese Long Beans are young, 12″ – 16″ long. Purchase beans that have no black spots, flexible but not limp and do not look dry.
An Easy Stir Fry
Chinese Long Beans are chewy, very hearty and can withstand intense spices and chilies. However, I love the simplicity of this recipe – combining stir fry and steaming in just a couple of steps.It takes less than 10 mins. They are the perfect side for almost any weeknight meal and cuisine.
Top Tips For Chinese Long Beans
- If you don’t have a wok then you can use a wide bottomed pan.
- If you want a dish with more kick you can add chilies.
- Look for beans with no black spots.
- Have all your ingredients ready to go before you fire up the wok as things move fast!
Check Out These Other Delicious Side Dishes
- Roasted Tofu and Vegetables
- Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberry Pistachio Pesto
- Warm Bacon Potato Salad
- Roast Cauliflower Recipe with Bacon and Garlic
Have you tried this Chinese Long Bean recipe? Feel free to leave a star rating and I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
Stir-Fried Chinese Long Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound Chinese Long Beans washed and trimmed to 3" lengths
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
Instructions
- Heat up your wok, add oil. When shimmering, add minced garlic. Fry just for a few seconds until fragrant. You want to make sure that you don't wait too long before adding the garlic to the oil, otherwise the oil will be too hot and the garlic will burn.
- Add your long beans, fry in wok for 30 seconds, tossing the garlicky oil all over the beans.
- Add water, oyster sauce and soy sauce. Cover the wok. Let the beans steam for 5 minutes on medium heat. Check to see if beans are almost tender, but not too soft. If not, re-cover and steam an additional 1 minute. Uncover, let the rest of the liquid evaporate, about an additional minute.
Nutrition
Did you try this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comment section! I always appreciate your feedback and I know other readers do, too!
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I am invited to a Thanksgiving today — or is it a Friendsgiving in this case? — & they are doing roast pork. The chef of the feast is a chef. So, rather than do a delicious (but fussy) cauliflower au gratin which the chef may be better at I think this will be perfect. I saw a similar recipe in the NYT but with a Vietnamese grocery nearby I wanted to give long beans a try. I am doing the garlic and ginger. Then, I will do a healthy splash of apple cider vinegar instead of the oyster & soy sauces. That should be simple and clean. I think it’ll make it unusual but familiar enough for what I presume will be largely Western fare.Â
I grow my own and love this recipe. Also have made pickles and other stir fried dishes. My problem is the plants just keep giving and giving! Is there any way of canning, freezing or preserving them?
Hi Susan, what a lucky problem you have! You can certainly can or freeze the Chinese long beans, just as you would for regular green beans. Another great recipe you can try is using Chinese preserved radish for a stir fry.
Thanks for the recipe! I made this yesterday to accompany some grilled sirloin. I rendered a little diced pork-belly and tossed in a pound of shiitake mushrooms to cook with the long-beans. Delicious! The whole family loved it. Like all your recipes, this one is very simple, yet brings out the flavor of the ingredients in a tasty and healthful way. Thank you for all your great work. Keepin’ it steamy!
Is it possible to overcook these Chinese long beans to the point that they become hard and tasteless?
I made some with oxtail and other veggies but the beans were awful.
Hi Ela – They probably were undercooked. Overcooked long beans are just like green beans – they’ll be soggy and mushy. Or, if the beans were old, they would taste bitter and tough.
Jaden
I made this tonight and it was great. Thanks!
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i love it when my mom cooks this dish it’s simple and healthy 🙂 if you would to get those dried shrimps and pound it, it would taste nicer and be more fragrant.
Jaden,
I have done a couple of searches on both SteamyKitchen and the web in general, but have been unable to locate a recipe for a chicken and yardlong beans stir-fry I used to enjoy at a Chinese restaurant many, many years ago. I’ve seen several variants such as yours above flavored using Oyster sauce, but the dish I had was really unique. It might have been seasoned with lemongrass and maybe some turmeric. It probably wasn’t Chinese, but I see you have other Asian cuisines included on your website. Any ideas?
Long Beans are often used in Thai cooking. I’d be willing to bet that the Chicken and Long Bean dish you are looking for is a Thai Recipe. My local Thai restaurant serves Pad Tao Kak, which is a red curry dish with long beans and a protein made without coconut milk. My favorite.
Keith
I have grown these in my garden the last two years. I have both red and green beans. They are very prolific so I share a lot. The two together with shallots make a very pretty side dish. I don’t can them but I do freeze them. They’re very good “fresh beans” through the winter.
There is no oil in the ingredient list for the long bean recipe. I figure two tablespoons of peanut oil will do it, but you might want to amend the recipe.
Thanks, Rob.
Yikes! Thanks for catching that! Fixed.
I’ve made these many times and really enjoy them. Simple and tasty!
I’m not sure as I’ve never seen canned long green beans before! Let me know how it turns out.
Are these beans good canned?