Green beans are such a great side dish for a wide variety of different lunches and dinners, particularly during the holiday season! The volume of green beans you should serve really depends on the type of meal you are serving. Green beans are super popular with turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Drool! If you are having guests over or even serving a potluck dinner, green beans are the perfect side that can be prepared ahead of time. They can be easily reheated at the time of serving, or you can just keep them warm on your stovetop or in the oven until everyone is ready to eat. I have even included a super tasty recipe for bacon green beans! So how much is necessary to cook for a crowd? Keep reading below to find out more!
Table of Contents
- Firstly, Why Green Beans?
- How Much Green Beans Should You Serve Per Person?
- How Many Servings Are In A Can Of Green Beans?
- How Many Cans Of Green Beans To Feed 20 People?
- Recipe for Bacon Green Beans
- Can You Make Green Beans Ahead Of Time?
- How many cans of green beans to feed 10 – FAQs
- How Many Servings Of Green Beans Do I Need – Answered!
Firstly, Why Green Beans?
Green beans are a perfect side dish when catering for weddings, family gatherings, BBQs, parties, or even business dinners! Not only the nutritional value, but the simple preparation make them a perfect side to whatever you plan on serving for your main course. Whatever the occasion, you have picked the right side to serve with your meal!
If you don’t have fresh green beans, canned green beans are one of the simplest dishes to prepare. After removing the lid, they can be drained and heated, or sauteed in a pan. There is no real preparation of the vegetable, unlike if you were to buy them fresh, when you snap or cut the beans.
This saves lots of time and makes using canned green beans much easier to work with compared to other vegetables that require much more preparation.
Green beans are a super adaptable and versatile side dish. You you can serve them plain and lightly salted, or add a touch of bacon or mushrooms. Another super tasty addition to green beans is sweet corn.
You truly can create a dish that is completely personalized to your palate. It’s easy to make ’em delicious. Adding your own touch can turn something that is simple to prepare into a fancy dish that is sure to be a big hit.
As well as being versatile, this side dish is also super healthy! Green beans are a great source of fiber, and they are both cholesterol-free and fat-free. They are high in vitamin K, which helps regulate blood calcium levels.
They are fairly low in calories (with about 15 calories in one serving of drained beans) while accounting for a portion of your recommended daily amount of fruit and vegetables. Adults should eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables everyday as part of a balanced diet.
How Much Green Beans Should You Serve Per Person?
According to the USDA, one serving of green beans is approximately ½ a cup of the vegetable. This is 240g of green beans, which has 36 calories, 7.8g of carbohydrates, 3.6g of dietary fiber, and 0.4g of fat. Green beans are also high in iron.
As you can see, green beans are super healthy for you and a great side dish to add to any meal and ensure that you are meeting your recommended daily allowance of lots of different vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin C, Iron, Calcium, and Potassium.
How To Calculate The Serving Size Of Green Beans?
It will also depend on the type of meal you are cooking for everyone. Whether you are cooking buffet-style, for thanksgiving, or having a big BBQ, there are different size portins I would recommend serving:
- Buffet Style: I would add 10% more to the portion sizes I am recommending below
- Thanksgiving Dinner Party: The serving sizes I have recommended are perfect for this occasion
- BBQ: I would probably use about 10% less than the portion size I have recommended
How Many Servings Are In A Can Of Green Beans?
Calculating the volume of food you need to make for a large group of people is a surefire way to stress yourself out.
One normal can of cut green beans has approximately 3.5 servings. This is approximately half a cup of green beans per person.
There are also a few different sizes of cans of green beans. The most common size is your usual 14.5 oz can, which I have given the recommended number of cans below.
The largest can of green beans you can get is 10. 12 small normal-sized cans is approximately the same as 2 large 10 sized cans.
How Many Cans Of Green Beans To Feed 20 People?
For 10 people, you will need around 3 cans of green beans. So if you are cooking for a crowd of 20 people, you should probably have about 6 cans of green beans.
However, if you are cooking fresh green beans, you will probably need about 5.75 lbs of fresh green beans. If you are using bags of frozen green beans, then you will just need the same as if you were using fresh green beans.
How Many Cans Of Green Beans To Feed 50 People?
If you are cooking for 50 people, then you will probably need about 15 cans of green beans to have enough to feed everyone.
If you are cooking with fresh green beans, the volume of green beans you will need is approximately 14.4 lbs. The same applies for if you were to use frozen green beans.
How Many Cans Of Green Beans To Feed 100 People?
If you are planning a big get together, and are cooking for 100 people, then you will probably need about 30 cans of green beans to feed this many people.
2 lbs of Green Beans Will Feed How Many People?
2 lbs of fresh green beans will feed approximately 7 people as a side dish.
Recipe for Bacon Green Beans
Green beans are a pretty tasty vegetable but if you have people who are a little picky, then adding a salty, kick like bacon is a great way to make these more palatable and a great way to satisfy the hunger cravings of many.
Ingredients
- 2 Cans of Green Beans
- 4 Slices of Bacon (cut into small pieces)
- 2 Tsp Butter
- 1 Tsp Onion Powder
- 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
- ½ Tsp Salt
- ½ Tsp Pepper
Instructions
Using this tasty and easy recipe, you can turn a pretty plain dish into a highlight of the meal, with just a few easy steps!
Total Time: 8 minutes
Fry your bacon
Cook off your bacon like you normally would. You can do this in the oven, microwave, or fry off to give your bacon a crispy texture. Drain away any extra grease and cut the bacon into small 1cm pieces.
Prepare the cans
Drain half of the liquid from both of the cans of green beans down the sink.
Add All Your Ingredients
Taking a large skillet, add your green beans along with the remaining half of the liquid. Next, add your bacon, butter, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.
Let it Simmer
Cook the ingredients on a medium heat until your green beans begin to simmer. Then, reduce the temperature to a medium-low heat, keeping the mixture simmering, leaving the skillet uncovered. Keep stirring occasionally.
Last Steps
When almost half of the liquid has evaporated, remove your skillet from the heat and place your green beans in a serving dish. Serve and enjoy!
Can You Make Green Beans Ahead Of Time?
Green beans can be made ahead of time. In fact, you can cook fresh green beans up to 3 days ahead of time!
I would recommend steaming or boiling them to a stage just past parboiling. The beans should still have a firm, crisp structure when you bite it.
Store the parboiled green beans in cold water, or even a bowl of ice in order to stop the cooking process. This also keeps them fresher for longer by avoiding any air getting at them.
Cover the container the green beans are in, you can use plastic wrap if you don’t have a lid. Then store your green beans in the refrigerator for up to three days!
Green beans are a super easy dish to prepare, and are super versatile. They taste super good with so many different foods.
You can add to their flavor by changing it up with different seasonings, such as garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, cumin, etc.
Green beans also taste really good when paired with pulled pork!
How many cans of green beans to feed 10 – FAQs
How Many Fresh Green Beans Per Person?
A good estimate of how much fresh green beans you need per person is approximately one handful of green beans per person. If you have other green sides, then one handful should do two people.
How many cans of green beans to feed 10?
You’ll need approx 3 cans of beans!
How Many Servings Of Green Beans Do I Need – Answered!
Hopefully you are much more prepared for your gathering in regard to the volume of green beans you need to have per person. 1 can of green beans will feed 3.5 people, so if you are cooking for 10 people, you will need about 3 cans of green beans.
If you have any other questions let me know in the comments, and make sure to check out some of my other blog posts if you enjoyed this one!
