How To Efficiently Freeze Green Beans And Use Them All Year
Green bean is a famous vegetable that is around for a very long time. Mostly every country or culture uses this green vegetable in their dishes. But unfortunately, people cannot grow green beans on any day of the year. Mostly in India, it grows in the wintertime.
There is a concept of using green beans throughout the year by freezing it. Though the different culture has different ways of doing that more or less, the core idea remains the same. In this blog, let’s discuss how to freeze the green beans the right way.
The Right way
There are some ways you can freeze your green beans in order to use them in the future. We should avoid the methods which include mixing artificial ingredients in heavy load. Blanching is a famous way that many people use to freeze this vegetable.
Blanching is important because it prevents any buildup of any external factor before freezing. It also helps to keep the original color and texture of the beans.
Preparing the beans
Preparation is a must before anything. Freezing beans is no different. At first, what you need is a bowl of cool tap water. You need to gently wash your beans with the cool water. Remember to use specifically cold water. After washing the next part is cutting the end of the beans.
If your knife skill is good enough, then there will be not much trouble cutting the end of the beans. Use a small number of beans at a time. Be sure to use a sharp knife. Repeat the process until there are no beans.
In some beans, there is a stringy fibre. Stay sure to remove this from your beans. You will not want those strings into your frozen beans.
Cutting the beans into required pieces
The next step is quite simple here. What you need to do is to cut your vegetable into pieces. How big each and every piece totally depends upon you. There are various recipes, and the different recipe requires different uses of beans. So either you can keep it whole, or you can cut before freezing.
You can also keep the beans whole before freezing and cut them after freezing.
Blanching
The term blanching is just a fancy word for boiling. Many people don’t know what to do with this. But it is a very useful technique in terms of freezing any vegetables. We talked about blanching in the early part of our discussion. Now let us talk in detail.
Blanching simply means boiling vegetables after cutting and quickly bring them into cold water. But if your bean pieces are not even then different pieces will need different times. Like smaller beans will need a smaller time window while bigger pieces will need more boiling time.
While you are boiling your beans, inside you will need a bowl filled with cold water. Cool the beans by keeping them in the cold water after boiling. You need to work simultaneously here. Generally smaller beans need two minutes, and bigger pieces need to take about four minutes to boil.
Cooling in cold water makes the beans keep their green color. Keep them in cold water for around three minutes. After that drain them off the water.
Preparation before the freezing
There is also a certain amount of preparation before freezing. After bringing the beans out of cold water, You need to spread the beans before freezing. Make sure the beans don’t touch or overlap each other. It is very important to keep them that way.
Put your chilled beans in a freezer-friendly container. This container can be anything that supports freezing. You can use freezer bags or freezer-friendly jar. Always try to compact the beans. Leave some space behind in the container. If you are using a jar, it is mandatory to leave some space behind.
Irrespective of what you are using to store your vegetable, always make sure that they are completely dry. Before keeping freezing beans, you need to press out the air too. And the last part includes sealing them completely.
You can use freezer tapes too. This makes sure that the seal around your container is tight. Lastly, put the dates and other information on your freezer bags. Freezing before is important to prevent all the beans from becoming a chunk of beans.
Freezing and timing
Now comes the main part that is freezing. Mainly it is the easiest step. But there are some rules here too. Try to add layers of bags or containers to make them freeze quickly. And also try to keep some space to circulate some air between them.
When the beans are solidly frozen, you can place them near each other. Try to use the beans within eight months of freezing. It can be used after the particular time limit also, but the quality decreases as time passes.
Other ways of freezing Green Beans
There is a way less famous for freezing beans. However, both of these methods use almost the same method. But boiling in hot water is not an option here. Instead of boiling your beans in cold water, you need to first cut them as mentioned in the early steps. Then clean them in plain water.
This step is happening because one needs to get all the dirt out of the vegetables. Now drying is the next step. Usually, drying takes a bit of time here. It takes about twenty minutes to completely dry the beans. You can use either one paper towel or a normal towel.
Now the next step is even simpler. You need to freeze them. Follow the guidelines for freezing. We were talking about them earlier in the blog. You have followed the instructions.
If you intend to defrost them and use them in your dishes, then the idea is also the same. Defrost them using boiling water. Directly applying is not what a tasty and urgent dish needs. Try to avoid that. But if you feel you are in a hurry then go with your luck.