How to Freeze Green Beans | The Prairie Homestead (2024)

Here I go again, breaking the rules…

First it was canning peaches with honey, and then my no-sugarcanned pears, and now I’m becoming a green bean rebel.

You see, I have an extreme aversion to two things when it comes to food preservation:

Super intricate methods with seemingly unnecessary steps (Ain’t nobody got time for that when you have 15 bazillion bushels of food to put up…)
Using boatloads of sugar to preserve fresh produce

Now you do have to be a little bit careful when you’re preserving food– sometimes you just *can’t* be a rebel with certain things if it impacts the safety of the recipe. (Check out my post all about canning safety HERE.) However, with the peaches and pears I listed above, the recipe is still completely safe, even with the edits.

So next up on my food-preservation-rebellion list?

Green beans.

First, let’s chat real quick about freezing vs. canning.

Canning Green Beans vs. Freezing Green Beans

This one is totally your personal preference. Some folks prefer the taste and texture of canned beans, while others prefer frozen ones.

Should I Blanch Green Beans?

When you freeze green beans, it’s always been recommended that you blanch them first. For those who aren’t familiar with blanching, it’s a common practice in food preservation that involves boiling the food for several minutes, and then plunging into ice water.

The thought is that blanching stops the enzyme action which can result in loss of flavor and color.

The problem? It’s an extra step. And I don’t like extra steps. And if you have a big bunch of green beans to freeze, you have to blanch in fairly small quantities, which takes time.

So last year I did the unthinkable: I froze all my green beans without blanching. Scandalous, I know…

But guess what? They’ve been in my freezer for almost a year now, and they still taste good. And there’s no obvious flavor or color loss that I can see. So that was enough to make me skip blanching for good. Here’s how I do it:

How to Freeze Green Beans without blanching

You will need:

Fresh green beans
Freezer baggies

In my opinion, the most important part of this process is starting off with good beans. Older, tougher beans just don’t freeze well. You know the ones– they feel kinda woody and hollow when you try to snap them. Skip freezing those guys, and only select the freshest, most tender green beans for your freezer.

Snap off the ends, and break the beans into halves or thirds, if you like. (I usually just leave them long, though).

Wash and drain thoroughly.

Spread the green beans on a baking sheet in a single layer, and flash freeze for 30-60 minutes. Remove them from the tray, place in a freezer baggie, label, and place back into the freezer.

When you’re ready to eat them, boil until tender, season, and that’s it. Fresh-from-the-garden-flavor in the dead of winter (or anytime).

So that’s how to freeze green beans using the cheater-method. But for those of you who are still blanching enthusiasts, no worries– I have instructions for you, too.

How to Freeze Green Beans (blanching method)

You will need:

Fresh green beans
Freezer baggies
Boiling water
Ice-cold water

Just like before, select the freshest, most tender beans. Snap off the ends, and snap into halves/thirds, if desired.

Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, and lower the beans into the pot. The key here is to not overload the pot. If you add too many beans to the pot at once, it’ll take too long for the water to come up to a boil. Blanch small quantities at a time so the water returns to a boil within a minute or so of you placing the beans in the pot.

Once the water returns to a boil, set the timer for three minutes.

After three minutes, remove the beans and plunge them into ice water for another 3 minutes.

Then remove from the ice water, drain very thoroughly, and place on baking sheet in a single layer. Freeze 30-60 minutes, then place into freezer bags.

If you’d rather freeze in freezer containers, or skip the flash-freezing process, that’s OK too. However, if you skip those steps, there’s a chance you’ll end up with a big chunk of rock-hard frozen green beans that can be hard to separate if you just need a small amount later.