Can You Freeze Green Beans?

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Are you fortunate enough to grow green beans in your garden? Or perhaps you prefer buying green beans fresh from your local greengrocers? Either way, you’ll need to know the best way to store them.

How to Freeze Green Beans

Some people choose to blanch green beans before freezing them, but you don’t need to if you don’t want to.

To keep things nice and simple for you, we have some simple steps you should take to store your green beans in the freezer without needing to blanch them:

1. Trim and Cut Beans: Begin by trimming the ends off your green beans, as they’re no good for eating. Once the ends have been removed, slice your green beans roughly in half. 
2. Wash Thoroughly: Place your chopped green beans in a colander or sieve and wash thoroughly under cold water. If you’ve picked the beans from your garden, remove all the dirt and other debris. 
3. Dry Completely: Remove the green beans from the colander and lay them on paper towels. Dab them and ensure they’re completely dry before moving to the next step. 
4. Place Into Freezer-Safe Bags: Drop your dry, chopped beans into freezer-safe bags. Whether you split them into several bags is up to you, but they shouldn’t stick together in the freezer.
5. Label and Freeze: Label your beans and write the use-by date on the front of the bag before sealing and freezing.

3 Tips for Freezing Green Beans

Now you know how to freeze them, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing green beans to have the best results:

Blanch Them
Blanching green beans is an effective way of preventing enzymes that lead to spoilage. If you’d rather blanch your beans, boil them for a few minutes before transferring them to an ice bath. You will then need to pat them dry before bagging them up. 

Buy In Season
The season for green beans runs from May to October, so this is the best time of the year to buy fresh and delicious beans! That said, you can buy fresh green beans from the supermarket year-round and freeze them accordingly. 

Freeze ASAP
If you know in advance that you’re going to freeze green beans, it’s best to get them in the freezer as quickly as possible while they’re nice and fresh. 

How Long Can You Freeze Green Beans?

You can freeze green beans for around 12 months. 

Whether you blanch them or not, green beans, like many other vegetables, freeze extremely well and will be perfect for a range of dishes or to accompany your family meals.

Just ensure they’re washed and dry before you freeze them to remove any dirt or debris from the garden.

How Do You Defrost Green Beans?

In most instances, defrosting green beans is unnecessary. You can boil them straight from frozen or add them straight to your other ingredients to form a delicious soup, curry, or casserole.

That being said, if you would prefer to defrost your green beans for whatever reason, remove the bag from the freezer and place them in the fridge for a few hours until they’ve thawed. 

Can You Refreeze Green Beans?

Refreezing green beans is perfectly safe, but we don’t advise you to do it. One of the best things about green beans is their crunchy texture, which is likely to be ruined if you opt to refreeze your beans.

Also, if ice crystals have formed within your package, the taste and appearance of your beans are likely to be affected, too. As a result, it’s best not to refreeze green beans after you’ve defrosted them. 

Do Green Beans Freeze Well?

You will find that green beans, like many other vegetables, freeze exceptionally well when they’re correctly cared for.

So, whether you grow green beans in your garden or prefer buying fresh beans from your local greengrocers or supermarket, you can access delicious green beans all year round from your freezer. 

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing green beans or beans in general, then these may help: