When you usually sauté, you add your ingredients to a pan with hot fat and cook until well-browned. But it isn’t that easy with certain vegetables, especially green beans.
Adding a tougher vegetable like raw green beans to hot oil does nothing but burn the outside and undercook the inside. Because of green beans' lack of moisture, water is necessary in order to soften them.
Traditionally, you may have to parboil the beans, shock them in ice water, dry them, and then sauté. Our favorite method for this process, however, is more streamlined and doesn’t require multiple pans. All you need is a 12-inch nonstick skillet with a tight-fitting lid.