Green Beans
Peak season in the Midwest · down 18% this week
This vegetable is at its local-harvest peak from June through September, and is generally in stores from May through October. This week it's peak season in the Midwest — buying it in season usually means better quality and, as the regional prices below show, a lower price.
Per a typical 100g serving, scaled from the per-100g figures in USDA FoodData Central (Beans, snap, green, raw).
Buying green beans in the Midwest saves about 55% versus the Northeast this week.
- How to pick a good one
- A good green bean snaps cleanly in half with an audible break. If it bends, it is old. Look for slim, even pods without bulging seed outlines pressing through the skin, which means it was picked late and will be tough.
- What a good price looks like
- Loose green beans run $1.50 to $3 a pound, and under $2 is a good price. They are one of the vegetables where the frozen product is genuinely close to fresh, so when fresh beans go above $3 the frozen bag is the better buy and nobody at the table will identify the difference in a casserole.
- What you actually get
- A pound of green beans serves four generously as a side and loses only about 5% to topping. That is unusually little waste for a fresh vegetable, and it is why beans compare well on cost per serving against something like broccoli or cauliflower with their heavy stalks.
- How to store it
- Refrigerate unwashed in a perforated bag for up to five days. They lose their snap steadily, so buy them for the week you will actually cook them.
- In the kitchen
- Snap the stem end off; the tapered tail is tender and does not need removing, whatever your grandmother said. The single biggest improvement is not boiling them into submission — four to five minutes in well-salted water, then straight into cold water if you are serving them cold. For a hot side, blanch first and finish in a hot pan with fat, rather than trying to cook them through in the pan alone.
- Getting the most out of it
- Blanch briefly and shock in ice water if you want them bright green for a salad; otherwise roast them hard until blistered, which concentrates the flavour and forgives an older batch. They freeze well once blanched.
- Easy Chicken & Rice Meal Prep BowlsRecipe by The Recipe Critic~$0.72 / serving 1 in-season
- Orange Arugula SaladRecipe by Two Peas & Their Pod~$0.80 / serving 5 in-season
- Vegetable Barley SoupRecipe by Budget Bytes~$0.83 / serving 8 in-season
- Sheet Pan Kielbasa Potatoes and Green BeansRecipe by Budget Bytes~$0.88 / serving 3 in-season
- French Onion Green Bean CasseroleRecipe by Well Plated~$0.89 / serving 3 in-season
- Crockpot Green BeansRecipe by The Recipe Critic~$0.95 / serving 3 in-season
See all 200 recipes with green beans →Filter by diet, time, budget, and macros.
Price from the USDA National Retail Report. Nutrition per typical serving, computed from USDA FoodData Central.
Green Beans — FAQ
When can you buy green beans in season?
This vegetable is at its local-harvest peak from June through September, and is generally in stores from May through October. This week the Midwest has green beans marked peak season.
What's the price of green beans right now?
As of the week of September 4, 2026, the price of green beans in the Midwest is $1.48/lb, down 18% from last week.
How many calories and how much protein are in green beans?
A typical 100g serving of green beans has about 31 calories, 1.8g protein, 7g carbohydrates, 0.2g fat, and 2.7g fiber, per USDA FoodData Central.
What can I make with green beans?
SeasonSort indexes 200 recipes that use green beans, each with its cost per serving computed from this week's prices — starting from about $0.25 a serving. The cheapest are listed on this page, with a link to the full filtered list.