Air Fryer Green Beans

There are two kinds of green beans in the world. There's the steamed kind — bright, squeaky, faintly medicinal, endured at holiday tables for generations. And there's the blistered kind you get at a good Sichuan restaurant or a Brooklyn small-plates spot: skins wrinkled and browned, interior gone sweet and tender, the kind of vegetable that disappears off the plate first. The difference isn't the bean. It's dry heat, high and fast, and the air fryer delivers it with less oil than a wok and less commitment than a 450°F oven in July.

Blistering is a surface phenomenon. You need the skin hot and dry enough to scorch in spots while the inside steams itself tender within its own walls — a race the bean wins only if there's no water clinging to it and no crowding trapping steam around it. The fan handles the second problem; a kitchen towel handles the first. Between those two details and a hard shake at the halfway mark, there's honestly not much cooking left to do.

This is also, in our experience, the single best gateway vegetable for kids — which is why it carries our kids pillar. A blistered green bean is a finger food. It's shaped like a french fry, it's salty, and nobody has to negotiate with a fork. Our test batches rarely made it to the table intact, and we mean that as data, not charm.

The garlic goes in late for a reason: minced garlic burns to bitterness in about four minutes at 390°F, so it only rides along for the back stretch. If you'd rather skip it, skip it — beans, oil, and salt stand on their own.