Freezing Green Beans

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Freezing green beans is a great way to have a Fresh Green Bean Recipe ready for dinner even in the winter months!

You can get your green beans the cheapest by growing them yourself, buying from a farm stand or get your Organic Nutrition at the CSA, or less fun and economical, buying them at the supermarket.

When the summer beans come on you will want to learn all about freezing green beans so you can have them in fresh green bean recipes all year long. Supermarket canned green beans are the most dreary item I can think of to actually put fork to and eat.

Pick them when they are long, smooth and snap crisp, and when the inner beans are still small, not big and bulging, a sure sign you need to feed them to the chickens as they are over ripe.

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If they are yellow, limp or wilted, forget it. You will need to snap the ends off, and if this is easy it means they are perfect for freezing green beans, or if you are eating them today, your fresh green bean recipe will turn out great!

Most vegetables, including green beans, must be blanched briefly to preserve the flavor, color and texture. Enzymes and bacteria in the vegetable will break it down and make your fresh green bean recipe unfit to eat. Wash in cold water in a colander before you get started. Check out our fresh green bean recipes in the next page! You will find lots of Ball Canning Recipes in the Ball Canning Guide, available at Canning Supplies stores online.

Boil a gallon of water per pound of beans. You need to do a two step process while Preserving Food by blanching green beans. First immerse them in boiling water for 3 minutes exactly, and then plunge them into ice cube water for 3 minutes.

The ice water step is important if you are freezing green beans, because it stops the cooking time. We don't want soggy, mushy beans in our fresh green bean recipes. OK, you have accomplished several things. You have destroyed the enzymes, removed the dirt and bacteria, and you have preserved the color, texture and nutritional quality.

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Freezing Green Beans

Snap the ends and off with the strings.

Cut them to desired size, we like 1 1/2 " size.

Rinse in a large colander with cool water.

Start a large pot of water and bring to a full boil. If you are doing a lot of green beans you may want to use a pot with a fitted basket strainer, it makes doing large batches go faster. You can reuse the water a few times as long as you return it to a boil for each batch.

Boil them, all at once, for 3 minutes and take them out.

Plunge into a bowl of water and ice cubes for 3 minutes.

Drain and dry them with a clean dishtowel.

For beans that do not stick together when you take them out of the bag, but rather can be poured out loose, you will need to follow this step. If you don't care, you can skip this step:

Lay out the beans in a single layer on a cookie sheet and freeze for an hour.

When freezing green beans, only use heavy duty good quality zippy bags made for freezing vegetables, it will make a difference in the nutritional quality that you are able to preserve. Check out our recipes for green beans here!

Next simply fill your zip lock freezer bags, press out the air and freeze them immediately. Keep your freezer at 0 degrees F, and use them up before next summer. You are done!

This is What You Can Have for Dinner this Winter

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If you have decided Canning Green Beans is for you, by all means understand that all vegetables and meats are low acid foods that must be processed in a Pressure Canner. Don't hesitate though, it is perfectly safe to can at home as long as you follow the Pressure Canning Instructions.

Happy Canning and Freezing!