Their season is short, but the taste is huge. Broad beans are young and tender from mid-May to late August. Connoisseurs then give them preference. But in winter, frozen beans are still better than nothing.

Broad beans are blanched or cooked and frozen

Remove the shell from the broad beans

Broad beans grow in pods, protected from wind, sun and everything else that can damage the tender kernels. They are also sold wrapped in the trade as fresh goods. The peel provides the best protection in this respect, but it is not suitable for consumption.

Free broad beans from their shells immediately before further processing. If the skin is removed too soon, the beans will spoil within days. If for some reason you can't freeze picked or store-bought beans right away, leave the beans in there for now.

Discard bad beans

The individual beans are like one another like one egg is like another. But occasionally there are also some damaged specimens hidden in the shells. These have to be sorted out by hand and finally end up in the waste container. Especially if you cultivate broad beans in your own garden, animal visitors could still crawl into it.

Briefly blanch broad beans

The seeds, sorted by hand and cleaned under water, must be blanched briefly before freezing. A large pot is filled almost full of water and brought to a boil.

  1. Do not put the beans in the pot until the water is already boiling.
  2. Cook the kernels for about three minutes.
  3. Then let the beans cool well and drain on kitchen paper.
  4. Fill suitable freezer containers with the beans and put them in the freezer immediately after labelling.

tips

Only add the beans to boiling water in batches. Too large a quantity of beans would cool the water down too quickly and too much, interrupting the cooking process for minutes.

shelf life and thawing

When it comes to the shelf life and thawing of the beans, the following is worth noting:

  • survive the high sub-zero temperatures for a whole 12 months
  • are still edible within this period
  • frozen beans do not need to be thawed
  • straight from the chest into a boiling liquid

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

Category:

Vegetable garden