Green beans, something I used to hate when I was younger, and I mean HATE. Until recently I never ate them or grew them, but a couple of years ago I made the decision to grow my own and give them a fair shot.
They say if there's a vegetable that you really don't like you should try eating your own, they'll be fresher than anything shop bought and much more full of flavour, you can pick them when they are younger and sweeter and eat them hours or even minutes after picking, making them tasty and more nutricious too.
I cook them simply, usually I steam them over whatever else I have cooking at the time or I will simmer them gently in salted water, but I only ever cook them for a couple of minutes, they are at their absolute tastiest when they have a bit of crunch, I serve them simply too, either just as they come out of the pan, or with a knob of butter or for a real treat tossed in a bit of lemon juice with a sprinkle of Parmesan style cheese and a few Pine nuts.
I never thought I would say this but .......Green Beans.....YUM YUM!!
There were a couple of questions about me freezing green beans yesterday, hence this post. In the past I have always blanched them for 1 or 2 minutes, cooled them very quickly in iced water, dried and then open frozen them, this time I decided to try it the other way. I've been told you can freeze most veggies without blanching them, so as I had only spent a pound on these it seemed a good time to try it this way.
So these were just briefly washed, dried and then tipped onto the tray for open freezing.
Once they were frozen, it only took a couple of hours, they were tipped into plastic boxes and quickly placed back in the freezer. I don't know if this will work, but to answer your questions I will have some for tea tomorrow night and let you know if they suffered at all in the process.
Open freezing any veg this way means that once frozen the veggies are still free flowing, just like the bags of frozen veggies you buy in the supermarkets, so you can take out as much or as little as you need for each meal, a real money saver.
Open freezing any veg this way means that once frozen the veggies are still free flowing, just like the bags of frozen veggies you buy in the supermarkets, so you can take out as much or as little as you need for each meal, a real money saver.
Sue xx
I also have thought of doing this as freezing sliced beans is a right royal pain.
ReplyDeleteThe beans freeze perfectly well without blanching. I grew my own in the past and never blanched before freezing.
ReplyDeleteWe're not growing any of our own but do receive beans from my parents so thank you for the tips.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like beans as a child either but now find them delicious.
Funny isn't it?
Sft x
I love green beans & we have them regularly. I tried growing some last year but only got a handful- have got sweetpeas in their place this year !
ReplyDeleteAbsolutly HATE butter beans & don't much like broad beans tho !
I was told that freezing without blanching was fine but they just didn't keep in tip top condition for as long. So I gave up blanching as we've never managed to grow enough to find out when they lost their good condition : )
ReplyDeleteSo true what you said about if you don't like a vegetable to grow your own and then try it. I've never liked peas (except mushy ones!?!); hubby grows peas most years as he really likes them, but I've lways refused to try them up until a couple of nights ago when we were looking at the pea pods on the plants in our garden with our little boy. He really wanted to try some and then offered them to me; I felt I couldn't refuse as it would set a bad example so I tried one - and they were absolutely delicious! It was like eating little sweets, they were so fresh and wonderful. What have I been missing out on all these years?!
ReplyDeleteI have a heap of broccoli I need to freeze, wonder if I could get away with not blanching those. We have dwarf beans growing and they are sweet and delicious. I didnt like beans as a kid either!
ReplyDeletex