How To: Blanch and Freeze Green Beans

Do you have a garden?

Do you have all that wonderful, delicious produce coming out your ears?

Are you having a hard time knowing what to do with all of it?

Me too.

Today, I’m going to show you how to blanch and freeze green beans.  Do you know what blanching is and why it’s important?  Blanching is when you plunge foods into boiling water for a few seconds or a few minutes, then remove and place in ice water. This process sets the color of vegetables.  The food doesn’t cook all the way through, so it’s crisp texture is preserved.  Blanching is necessary in the freezing process.  It helps the food keep it’s color and flavor so that when you cook it later, it isn’t soggy and disgusting.

Like crinkle cut carrot slices in the frozen food section.  {{{shudder}}}

First, head out to your garden and pick as many green beans as you can.

Rinse off the beans...

…then snip off the ends.

You don’t need this exact pot, but it sure is handy.  This is just a stock pot with a potato/pasta insert.

This is the easiest way to take the boiling beans out of the pan and plunge it into the ice water.  You could just as easily drain it off into a strainer then put the strainer into the ice water.

Moving right along--

Fill the pot with water then set it on the stove and bring it to a boil.  In the meantime, fill the pot insert with the beans.

Unless you’re not using an insert.  Then just wait for the water to boil.

There it goes.  Now slowly drop your insert (or just beans) into the boiling water.  Cover them, then set the timer for three minutes; unless you’re in a high altitude.  Then set the timer for four minutes.

Now, fill up your sink with lots of cold water and lots, and lots, and lots of ice.

Notice the green beans in the other side of the sink?!  Yeah.  I did a lot of batches.  Anyway, Ice water in the sink?  Beans boiling on the stove?  Timer set?

Awesome.

When the timer goes off, take the insert out of the pan.  Slowly.  You don’t want boiling water dumped all over you.

Set the insert into the sink, then set the timer for 3-4 more minutes.  It has to sit in the water for the same amount of time it cooked.

While you’re waiting for the beans to cool, get some freezer bags ready to fill.

Now you just repeat the process until you’ve blanched all of the beans.

Just look at all of those beautifully blanched beans!

Aren’t they lovely?

Fill your freezer bags, then pop those bad boys into the freezer until you’re ready to use them.

After these have frozen, my family thinks these are the tastiest when they’re boiled in salt water.  Just FYI…

You can use this blanching process for lots of different fruits and vegetables.

Oh yeah.  And?!  I’ll definitely be doing this again in the near future.  That wasn’t even half of the beans.  Oh joy.