Many home cooks have mastered cooking salmon fillets, chicken, and even steak in their air fryer. Flavoursome vegetables are uncharted territory for those who rely on traditional cooking methods like steaming, boiling or blanching to cook their greens. Recipe creators have urged air fryer owners to include veggies like green beans in their cooking repertoire.

A Food52 contributor has shared a simple recipe for air-fried green beans: "This recipe uses four ingredients and is ready in less than 15 minutes...the perfect side dish for grilled chicken or beef." Instead of leaving the beans to turn dry and squeaky, the air-fried method uses black pepper, cherry tomatoes, and bacon's natural oils to flavour the vibrant stalks.

Air fryer green beans

Ingredients

225g French green beans, washed and cut in half

Three slices of bacon sliced into thin strips

One-quarter of a teaspoon of black pepper

One-quarter of a cup of cherry tomatoes, halved

How to cook green beans

First, wash the green beans and carefully chop them in half. You can trim the ends off, but they are safe to eat.

Add the beans directly to your air fryer basket, or, if you use a digital oven air fryer, line one of the racks with baking paper and place the green beans on top. Alternatively, place the beans in an air fryer-safe dish.

Sprinkle the cut green beans with black pepper to season, then slice the bacon into thin strips; the thinner the strips, the crispier the bacon will be.

Sprinkle the bacon over the green beans in the air fryer basket. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and place them on the green beans and bacon.

Return the basket or rack to the air fryer and cook at 190C for seven minutes. Remove the air fryer basket at seven minutes, then turn the beans and bacon around to ensure the meat crisps evenly.

Cook everything for another seven minutes. Serve fresh from the air fryer in a large dish.