Skip to main content
Main

Green Beans with Kalamata Olives

A sautéed green bean dish with Kalamata olives, pine nuts, tomatoes, garlic, onion, butter, and olive oil.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Green Beans with Kalamata Olives

Timeabout 7 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Toast pine nuts in a small non-stick frying pan until golden brown.

  2. Remove pine nuts from heat and reserve.

  3. Remove tips and tails from green beans and cut into 1½-inch lengths.

  4. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and poach the beans until tender but still firm, about 7 minutes.

  5. Drain beans in a colander.

Sauté and serve

  1. In a sauté pan, heat butter and olive oil and add the beans; sauté for 1 minute.

  2. Add minced onion and cook until translucent, not brown.

  3. Add minced garlic, tomatoes, and Kalamata olives.

  4. Sauté for 2–3 minutes.

  5. Add reserved pine nuts and serve immediately.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

517Calories
8 gProtein
45 gFat
26 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pine Nut1 oz (28g)191
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Olive1 large (4g)4

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Pine + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green beans
Provide the main body of the dish and a firm, crisp-tender texture when poached.
Pine nuts
Add toasty, nutty flavor and a crunchy texture when browned.
Kalamata olives
Contribute salty, briny flavor that seasons the dish.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that brighten the sautéed vegetables.
Olive oil
Carries flavor and helps the beans and aromatics sauté evenly.

The step that matters

Poach the beans until tender but still firm. Green beans turn dull, olive-drab and mushy if overcooked, because prolonged heat breaks down their chlorophyll and cell structure. Pulling them from the water once tender keeps color and bite before the final sauté.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pine, green beans, butter, olive, onion, garlic, tomato):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pine, green beans, butter, olive, onion, garlic, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesGreen PeasGreen Peas229 recipesGreen Pea SoupGreen Pea Soup181 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes