Anyone who has grown beans in their own garden may not be able to eat that many beans at once at harvest time. Freezing is then a good way to preserve the snap beans. Find out here what needs to be considered when freezing snap beans and how to do it.

Snap beans are best blanched and frozen

Freezing or Boiling?

Anyone who has harvested or bought too many beans is faced with the question of how to preserve the snap beans. Two methods then quickly come to mind: freezing or preserving. What is better?
If you have the space in your freezer, you should freeze your snap beans. Preserving valuable nutrients is destroyed, but the cold in the freezer cannot harm them. In addition, with the right procedure, the beautiful green color of the beans is retained when they are frozen, but not when they are boiled down.

Can you freeze raw snap beans?

Yes, string beans can be frozen raw. There is a rumor that snap beans become poisonous if frozen raw. That's basically true, because raw beans are always poisonous. However, freezing doesn't matter. As soon as you take your snap beans out of the freezer and cook them thoroughly, the toxic protein phasin is destroyed and the beans become edible - whether they were previously frozen or not.
Gourmets recommend not thawing the snap beans before cooking, but putting them in the hot water frozen.

Freeze snap beans step by step

It is better to blanch the string beans before freezing. This preserves color and texture better than freezing them raw. So do the following:

  • Discard rotten, gnawed, or otherwise unsightly snap beans.
  • Wash your beans thoroughly.
  • Trim the ends and tops of the beans and cut them into portion-sized pieces.
  • Then cook them in boiling salted water for 3 minutes.
  • Take out the beans and shock them in the coldest possible water.
  • Drain the beans well and/or dry them with a cloth.
  • Put the snap beans in a freezer bag or in a special container and seal it. Remove all air from the freezer bag.
  • Note the freezing date.

How long do frozen snap beans last?

You can easily store beans for between eight and ten months in a conventional freezer.

The garden journal freshness ABC

How can fruit and vegetables be stored correctly so that they stay fresh for as long as possible?

The garden journal freshness ABC as a poster:

  • as a free PDF file to print out yourself

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