Wax Beans substitute

Best substitute

Green Beans

Use the same amount by weight, same cooking time as the wax beans you are replacing

Best for three-bean salad

Close match

Green beans are a perfect functional substitute at 1:1 with the same cooking time, and the only thing you lose is the yellow colour. If the recipe uses wax beans specifically for contrast, as three-bean salad does, yellow romano beans or a handful of yellow bell pepper strips restore the colour.

Other wax beans substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Yellow Romano or Yellow Flat Beans
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Wide flat yellow pods that keep the colour and add a meatier bite.
What changes
Best for
salads, braises, steaming, side dishes
Right colour, different shape. Flat beans are broader and denser and want 2-3 more minutes of cooking, and they turn silky rather than snappy. Slice them into bite-length pieces so they match the other beans in a salad.
3Canned or Frozen Wax Beans
Different texture
Use the same amount by drained weight
The form the classic recipes were actually written around.
What changes
Best for
three-bean salad, casseroles, quick sides
For a marinated three-bean salad, canned wax beans are arguably the correct choice rather than a compromise, because the dressing needs fully tender beans to penetrate. Drain and rinse them to shed the canning salt. Frozen wax beans go straight into hot pans without thawing.
4Haricots Verts
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Slim French green beans, tender and quick-cooking.
What changes
Best for
plated sides, salads, sauteing, blanching
Take 2 minutes off the cooking time because they are much thinner, and expect a more delicate, less substantial bean. They are green, so there is no colour contrast. Best where the beans are a side dish rather than one bean among three.
5Yellow Summer Squash or Yellow Zucchini
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight, cut in half-moons
A colour-matching stand-in when you have no yellow beans of any kind.
What changes
Best for
cold salads, sauteed sides, vegetable medleys
This is a colour fix, not a flavour fix. Squash is watery and soft with no snap and none of the beany flavour, and it will loosen a dressed salad. Salt the slices for 15 minutes, pat dry, and add them just before serving.
6Yellow Bell Pepper Strips
Taste and texture differ
Use ½ to 1 cup for every cup of wax beans
Purely for the yellow in a cold salad.
What changes
Best for
three-bean salad, marinated vegetable salads, crudites
Sweet, crunchy and completely unlike a bean, but in a vinegar-dressed salad it holds its colour better than any substitute here and adds a fresh snap. Use it alongside green beans rather than instead of them.

What is Wax Beans?

Wax Beans is Wax beans, also sold as yellow wax beans or yellow beans, are ordinary green beans from varieties that produce pale yellow pods instead of green ones because they lack chlorophyll.

Cooking tips

Because they are the same plant as a green bean, treat them identically: 4 to 6 minutes in well-salted boiling water for crisp-tender, or 8 to 10 if a dressing needs to soak in.
You cannot judge doneness by eye the way you can with green beans, which go from bright to drab. Wax beans look much the same raw and overcooked, so bite one. Once they turn a dull grey-khaki you have gone too far.
For three-bean salad, cook them past crisp-tender on purpose. Firm beans repel a sweet-sour dressing, and the classic version is meant to be fully tender and thoroughly marinated, ideally overnight.
Wax beans bruise and brown at the cut ends faster than green beans do. Trim them just before cooking, and if you must prep ahead, hold them in cold water.
If you are canning wax beans or making pickled dilly beans, use a tested recipe and do not reduce the vinegar, dilute it, or swap in a lower-acidity vinegar. Beans are a low-acid food, and the acid level in a tested pickling recipe is what makes it safe. Plain canned beans require a pressure canner. See the National Center for Home Food Preservation for tested procedures.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just use green beans instead of wax beans?

Yes. They are the same species and behave identically in the pot, with the same cooking time and near-identical flavour. The only real loss is the yellow colour, which matters in three-bean salad and on mixed vegetable platters and nowhere else.

Are wax beans the same as butter beans?

Confusingly, yellow wax pods are called butter beans in some regions, but in most of the English-speaking world butter beans are large flat white lima beans, which are shelled and completely different. If a recipe gives a cooking time of a few minutes for fresh pods, it means yellow wax beans. If it says drained and rinsed from a can alongside other white beans, it means limas.

Do wax beans taste different from green beans?

Slightly. They are a shade sweeter and less grassy, because the pigment that gives green beans their vegetal edge is absent. Side by side you can taste it. In a dressed salad or a casserole, almost nobody can.

Can I leave wax beans out of three-bean salad?

You can, and then it is a two-bean salad, which is fine but visually flat. A better fix is to use green beans for the volume and add something yellow for contrast, such as yellow pepper strips or a little diced yellow squash.

Why did my wax beans turn brown?

Usually overcooking, or cooking them in an aluminium or bare cast iron pan, which can dull pale vegetables. Boil them in a stainless or enamelled pot, keep it under six minutes for crisp-tender, and cool them quickly in ice water.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Wax Beans substitute

Other wax beans substitutes

2Yellow Romano or Yellow Flat Beans

3Canned or Frozen Wax Beans

4Haricots Verts

5Yellow Summer Squash or Yellow Zucchini

6Yellow Bell Pepper Strips