Maybe you just made some Mighty Meat Muffins and now need a side to go with them or you are just looking for a quick and easy side that takes 10 to 15 minutes to create. Either way you have come to the right place.

Step 1: Ingredients and Tools

Here is everything you will need to make these delicious tart green beans.

Ingredients

one key lime
1 tablespoon(14g) of butter either salted or unsalted is fine
1lbs(450g) of green beans this is about 1/4 lbs per serving.
salt if you are not using salted butter

Tools

Strainer
Skillet
Spatula
Micro plainer
Fire
Citrus juice extractor(this could just be your hands)
Knife
Cutting board

Once you have everything gathered it is time to make some tasty green beans.

Step 2: Washing, Zesting, and Melting Oh My

So here is where I let you in a secret. I know I skipped the cutting the beans step and that is because I purchased my green beans precut. If you did not you can do that and I will hang out here while you cut the ends off your green beans....

Cool you're back. Lets wash those green beans.(I put my green beans in a strainer and rinse them with cold water.) Then turn your burner on to medium high heat toss your 1 tbsp(14g) of butter into your skillet. While your butter is melting quickly zest your tiny tiny key lime lime. The trick to zesting is you just want to shave off the colored part of the fruit leaving behind the white bitter part of the rind. Once your lime is zested cut it in half, grab it, your zest, and green beans and join me over at the skillet.

Step 3: Some Like It Hot or the Cookening

So now that your butter is almost all melted go ahead and dump your zest right into that melted buttery goodness and stir it around. Once the aroma of the zest hits you(or about 30 seconds whichever comes first) you can add your green beans. Make sure once your green beans are in the skillet to give them a good stir so they get evenly covered in zesty butter goodness. Now I like my beans to have a bit of a crunch to them still so it only takes about 3 minutes of stirring occasionally before I get to the next step. If you like them firm stick with me otherwise cook them until they are almost as soft as you like them. Once they are almost done squeeze the juice from your lime into the skillet and stir the green beans for about a minute more. Now all that is left is to plate them and enjoy.

Step 4: Enjoy

As you can see I paired my key lime buttered green beans with two meat muffins and artfully arranged them as a smiley face. This is because I am still five at heart and happy food is fun to eat.

Thanks for taking the time to read over this instructable. I hope you have enjoyed it. If you make these tart tasty green beans I hope they turn out as delicious as mine did.