How to freeze green beans to preserve their benefits?

Is it possible to freeze beans for the winter?

The yield of bush and climbing varieties of green beans is high. Young pods are not stored for a long time after cutting. You can prepare them for the winter in pickled form, but it is better to freeze the blades. They need to be picked at a time when the grains are very small; in this phase, the benefits from using the leaves are greater.

When canned, beans are subjected to long-term heat treatment, and some of the beneficial properties are lost. The finished product contains a preservative (vinegar), its use is not recommended for everyone. Freezing has no downsides. Properly prepared and frozen beans retain their nutritional value completely and can be used in dietary foods without fear.

Selection and preparation of beans

The asparagus variety is distinguished from the vegetable variety by the absence of a hard parchment layer in the structure of the leaves. Young green beans are prepared in soups, salads, stews, and side dishes without separating the beans from the shells.

Blades assembled in time do not require long-term heat treatment. They are tasty and tender.

You can freeze any color variety. Stores usually sell only green beans, but in summer cottages they grow white, yellow, purple, and red. The cut shape of the bean can be different:

flat;
cylindrical.

Many housewives prefer round pods. They are considered to be juicier, softer, and look better in the finished dish. The shape does not affect the quality of freezing.

The following varieties are grown for harvesting:

Butter King;
Fakir;
Crane;
Mask;
Sonesta.

Bush (climbing) beans are harvested regularly for freezing. The pods are picked while the skin is thin and the grains are small.

When selecting raw materials, the following rules are followed:

blades with mechanical damage or stains are rejected;
to disinfect (get rid of germs) soak in a weak solution of baking soda, followed by rinsing in running water;
put on a sieve and dry on a piece of cloth;
The ends are cut off on both sides.

Preparation carried out in this way prevents further spoilage of the product and increases its nutritional value.

Freezing secrets

Many housewives want to cook green beans in the fall and winter. How to freeze it correctly to preserve all the vitamins? To prevent the product from losing its properties, it must be frozen according to all the rules. Asparagus is recognized as an excellent source of beneficial components that the body needs during the cold period. But it is impossible to get fresh green beans at this time, so you should take care of supplies in advance.

To prevent beans from becoming tough, you need to know not only how to freeze green beans, but also when and how to harvest them. It should be a little unripe, but such that you can pierce the entire pod with your fingernail. During this period, the grains are milky and the skin is soft to the touch. If you skip this time and freeze overripe green beans, they will be tough and unpleasant in taste.

Preparing the refrigerator

All modern refrigerators (freezers) have a special key to turn on the super freeze mode. This function allows you to obtain a frozen product of quality that is not inferior to industrial quality. It allows you to quickly cool and freeze vegetables, which guarantees the preservation of all beneficial properties. If the weight of the raw material exceeds 2 kg, then the instant freezing function is turned on approximately 3-4 hours before placing the beans prepared for freezing into the chamber.

Recommendations for use

Frozen beans will be an excellent addition to first and second courses, salads. It is advisable to add them to hot dishes at the last stage of preparation, and to salads - with preliminary defrosting. If you defrost it in the microwave and then puree it with a blender, you will get an excellent dressing for first courses or a delicious pate.

Freezing beans is usually used by housewives when they do not want to spend a lot of time preparing the product for cooking. This is very convenient, especially since when frozen, the beans retain their taste and nutritional qualities.

Today we will talk about how to freeze beans. Many housewives will agree with me that preparing dishes with beans takes a lot of time and fuss: first soak the beans for 10 hours, constantly change the water, then cook for 1 to 2 hours, season with salt... you don’t even want borscht or stew with beans. Don't panic! Let's take one day to freeze a fairly large batch of beans and then, at any time, you will prepare the most delicious bean dishes for the whole family without any extra effort!

How to properly freeze beans at home

What you definitely shouldn't do is pour all the beans into one large bag and stick them in the refrigerator. You are unlikely to want to use such a preparation in winter. It’s better to spend some time and make quality freezing. The time spent on its preparation will be compensated later when preparing dishes. Cooking any dish (soup, stew, warm salad) from frozen beans is very quick.

A quick way to freeze raw beans

The fastest way to freeze fresh beans. It needs to be collected, sorted, and prepared according to the rules described above. While the raw materials are drying, work on the refrigerator. If it is equipped with a quick freeze compartment, empty it. If there is none, prepare another compartment.

There should be enough space to place a cutting board, tray, and baking sheet with beans on the shelf.

Clean, dried beans should be poured in one layer onto a prepared tray; by the way, it is better to line it with cling film and quickly freeze it for several hours.

To keep the frozen pods intact, they are scattered into separate bags (containers), tied tightly, and a piece of paper with the date of freezing is inserted into each one. Placed in a compartment where vegetables, herbs, and fruits are stored.

Boiled beans

Freezing already boiled beans speeds up later cooking. Thawed beans can be used to prepare a salad; after lightly frying, you can get a ready-made side dish for meat. Cooking will not take much time.

In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil, add a little salt and place clean, cut into pieces pods into it. Cook them until tender for at least 15 minutes. Drain the water through a colander. The beans should lie in it for some time so that the water completely drains.

Place it in bags (containers) when it dries. Distribute raw materials in optimal portions. It is better when one package of beans contains exactly as much as is required to prepare one dish.

Blanched beans

Harvesting blanched beans has its advantages. The procedure allows you to preserve the bright color of the pods, which is especially appreciated when preparing holiday dishes. It is better to blanch the beans in a colander. You will need 2 large saucepans. In one, water is brought to a boil, in the second, cold is poured. Dip a colander with beans into boiling water for 3-4 minutes, take it out, and place it in a container with cold water.

Canned beans

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have room in the freezer and you have a lot of green beans. Not all beneficial and nutritional properties are lost during preservation.

Canned food has its advantages:

are stored for a long time;
tasty;
do not require additional processing before use.

You can pickle bean pods alone or make assorted vegetables. Korean carrot preparations are very popular among housewives. Bean pods canned in tomato juice or with celery are good.

For those who avoid eating preparations with vinegar, tomato juice is a way out. It is a good preservative and at the same time has beneficial properties. Heat-treated tomatoes are equally beneficial for men and women. For canning, in addition to vegetables, you will need small jars with screw caps.

Freezing Soaked Beans

The vegetable variety of the crop has hard fibers in the flaps, so the beans are peeled from the flaps. Only grains are used for food. It takes a lot of time to boil them until tender. To speed up the process, the grains are soaked for several hours.

By absorbing water, the beans swell and increase in size. They cook much faster. Soaked beans can be frozen. They do not lose their nutritional properties. Many housewives boil a lot of raw materials at once, cool it, divide it into portions, pack it in bags and freeze it. If necessary, take a frozen semi-finished product and prepare any dish from it (borscht, side dish, salad).

How to freeze green beans

For freezing, you must choose green beans that have already reached the required maturity. The pod should be dense and elastic; if you try to bend it, it will break. Inside, the pulp is visible at the break; if seeds are visible, they should be small in size, about the size of a grain of rice.

Of course, the seed pods themselves should not have any stains, damage, etc. It happens that ordinary beans that are not ripe are passed off as asparagus beans. This is easy to understand: you need to break the pod into two parts, and if there is a fibrous thread on the side, this means that this is an ordinary bean.

Before freezing, green beans need to be prepared: rinsed, dried and cut off the tails on both sides. The pods are then cut into pieces of any size. You can freeze the whole thing - it all depends on your tastes and wishes.

Thanks to blanching, the pods become soft, while retaining their beneficial properties, taste and color. It’s easy enough to defrost such a preparation – and you can immediately prepare a salad or other vegetable dishes that do not involve heat treatment.

Cooking steps:

Pour 3 liters of water into a large saucepan, wait until it boils and place the pods there.
Boil them in boiling water for three minutes.
After time, the water is drained and the pods are transferred to a container with ice water.
After three minutes, the pods are laid out on a clean cloth and dried.
After this, you need to put the beans in a container and put them in the freezer.

When freezing beans, it is important to consider the following nuances:

It is necessary to place the workpiece in bags or containers as quickly as possible so that the beans do not begin to defrost;
Do not reduce the heat, otherwise the cooking technology will be disrupted;
It is allowed to use cold water instead of ice. However, using ice is a more suitable method.

How long and how to store a frozen product

Storage in the freezer has certain regulations. Each food product has its own shelf life, frozen beans have a shelf life of 6 months. You can use the product later than this date if the following conditions are met:

the temperature in the freezer compartment is -18 °C and below;
the product is prepared correctly;
the packaging is sealed;
the product did not thaw during storage.