5 thoughts on “What is the best way to prepare home grown green beans for freezing?”
Leslie S
Rinse thoroughly. Remove stem ends and tips. Cut or break into pieces about 2 in. long. Steam for 4 min. Remove from steamer and immerse invery cold water to stop the cooking process.
Drain well. Put in freezer bags which you have labeled and dated.
You can remove the air from the bags by rolling them up from the bottom before sealing. Steaming the veggies retains more vitamins than blanching.
omajust
Follow the blanching directions– helps to use a colander that fits in the big pot of boiling water– you could use a spagetti pot that has the colander insert. Put a good dose of salt and a couple tablespoons of sugar in the water– snap and destring the beans– place in the colander and immerse in the boiling water. Time the 60 seconds after it returns to a boil– take them out- and put in the ice water. (it helps to have another pair of hand or so)– I like my beans loose– so I freeze them on a cookie sheet that has foil or parchment paper on it. Make sure you have freezer bags- – the simple ziploc bags are way too thin. The foil allows you to dump the beans in a freezer bag –be sure and express all the air possible from the bag. And LABEL. The beans don’t have to be totally frozen when you pick up the foil and dump them in the bag– just chilled well . They can finish freezing later– Remember that you’ll be working your freezer harder– a refrigerator won’t handle a bushel of green beans- will take too long to freeze.
Have fun– you’ll love serving your beans in the winter!!
jeanhack42
You need to blanch them. That means to dip them into boiling water for a minute and then plunge them into ice water. Remove from the ice water and they’re ready to freeze.
chattykhatty
Wash em good, par boil em and then freeze em in water with a little salt.They will taste really fresh.
exbuilder
There are thousands of websites with good directions for freezing all kinds of vegetables. This is one of the better ones:
Rinse thoroughly. Remove stem ends and tips. Cut or break into pieces about 2 in. long. Steam for 4 min. Remove from steamer and immerse invery cold water to stop the cooking process.
Drain well. Put in freezer bags which you have labeled and dated.
You can remove the air from the bags by rolling them up from the bottom before sealing. Steaming the veggies retains more vitamins than blanching.
Follow the blanching directions– helps to use a colander that fits in the big pot of boiling water– you could use a spagetti pot that has the colander insert. Put a good dose of salt and a couple tablespoons of sugar in the water– snap and destring the beans– place in the colander and immerse in the boiling water. Time the 60 seconds after it returns to a boil– take them out- and put in the ice water. (it helps to have another pair of hand or so)– I like my beans loose– so I freeze them on a cookie sheet that has foil or parchment paper on it. Make sure you have freezer bags- – the simple ziploc bags are way too thin. The foil allows you to dump the beans in a freezer bag –be sure and express all the air possible from the bag. And LABEL. The beans don’t have to be totally frozen when you pick up the foil and dump them in the bag– just chilled well . They can finish freezing later– Remember that you’ll be working your freezer harder– a refrigerator won’t handle a bushel of green beans- will take too long to freeze.
Have fun– you’ll love serving your beans in the winter!!
You need to blanch them. That means to dip them into boiling water for a minute and then plunge them into ice water. Remove from the ice water and they’re ready to freeze.
Wash em good, par boil em and then freeze em in water with a little salt.They will taste really fresh.
There are thousands of websites with good directions for freezing all kinds of vegetables. This is one of the better ones:
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM1045.pdf#search='freezing%20vegetables‘
It is provided by the University of Iowa.
Good luck with your summer bounty.