Fans green beans not too much. Traditionally, the fruits of legumes are eaten in the form of ripened grains. But not everyone knows that the most important vitamins for the human body are found in the early green pods. Hobbyists grow pod varieties on their own or collect green, unripe blades of regular beans. They prepare healthy dishes from the freshly harvested harvest and know exactly how best to freeze green beans for the winter.
Is it possible to freeze beans for the winter?
Harvest of leguminum or green beans collected in the second decade of summer. The state of milky ripeness in legumes is short-lived, and therefore housewives try to prepare vegetable products for the winter as quickly as possible.
The beans in the pods are used as food when the peas reach the size of tiny barley grains. During this period, they contain especially many useful substances, since they are soft bean sash most suitable for boiling, cooking and freezing.
Even if they started harvesting the fruits a little late, and the shell became a little hard, the green pods are still very tasty and edible. Only the heat treatment will take a little longer. To include an additional source of vitamins in your diet during the cold season, green beans are frozen.
Selection and preparation of beans
If green beans are collected at an early stage of maturity, then when frozen they will retain all their taste and vitamins. Pods with thin skin and soft juicy grains not covered with a hard shell are selected.
To ensure that the product is only of high quality, at the preparatory stage, before freezing, it should be processed, this is done in this way:
- Carefully review the collected pods. Damaged blades with obvious damage, light or whitish in color, are rejected. Only high-quality ones are left - bright green.
- There are microbes on the skin of every vegetable from the garden. To get rid of them, the beans are placed in a weak solution of baking soda for a while, after which they are thoroughly washed in running water.
- Next, the fruits are laid out on a dry, clean cloth and dried.
- For more convenient use in the future, the tips of the pods are removed and each is cut into small pieces.
Green beans are frozen only in peeled, washed, dried form. Such precautions will rid the product of pathogens, improving its quality.
Preparing the refrigerator
In freezing vegetables and fruits, oddly enough, the process itself plays a big role. By following all the rules, you can avoid disappointment. It is not so important at what temperature the products are frozen, the main thing is how quickly the transition from plus to minus occurs.
The temperature limit should pass quickly; this factor only improves the quality of preservation of the fruit. The latest generation refrigerators have the “S” function – super freezing. If more than two kilograms of vegetable products are frozen, the instant freezing button is set four hours before placing the products in the chamber.
How to properly freeze beans at home
Correct execution is very important in freezing. It is clear that you should not immediately distribute the prepared products into bags, boxes and place them in the freezer. When the reserve cold storage function is engaged, there are several good freezing options available.
A quick way to freeze raw beans
To keep vegetables in proper form, you should use quick freezing. The freezer has a compartment with a small shelf for storing cold batteries.
A layer of washed, dried fresh bean pods is placed on this shelf. After they quickly freeze evenly, they are transferred to bags.
When the refrigerator does not have special shelves for quick freezing, the vegetable preparations are laid out in strips of any material and placed in the chamber. This freezing takes a little longer, but is no less effective. Next, the frozen beans are packed into bags and stored for long-term storage.
Boiled beans
The prepared bean pods are placed in salted boiling water and boiled for fifteen minutes. The finished product is drained through a colander. With light shaking, remove excess moisture, lightly dry, and place in special plastic containers or bags.
It is better to use sealed bags for freezing. If these are not available, take ordinary bags, which, after laying out the beans and extracting the air, are tied tightly. Boiled frozen beans are convenient because they do not require additional processing. It is immediately used for food, preheated or fried.
Blanched beans
Place the fruits in a pan of boiling water and cook for five minutes. Blanched beans are removed from the boiling water and immediately placed in the ice-cold liquid. Thanks to this method, they cool quickly, maintaining good external condition. The preparations are laid out on a kitchen napkin and dried.
Dried green bean pods are placed in containers prepared for freezing, which are placed in the freezer. After defrosting, the semi-finished product is subjected to additional scalding, after which the product is stewed or fried.
Canned beans
When record harvests of green beans are harvested, and it is not possible to freeze the entire volume, the excess beans are canned.
Canned products contain much less useful substances, but, nevertheless, the pods are tasty as a side dish or in a vegetable salad.
When pickled, green beans reveal all their flavor potential to the fullest. The product stands out for its special softness of green blades and its characteristic taste. Marinades differ from brines in recipe, and the addition of vinegar to the preparations allows preservation to be stored for several years.
Freezing Soaked Beans
All traditional types of legumes are usually soaked before cooking. Fruits soaked for 24 hours swell and double in size. When kept in a humid environment, the skin gradually stretches to its maximum size, does not burst during cooking, and cooks much faster.
Thrifty housewives soak and freeze even ordinary beans. The swollen beans are boiled until tender, drained, dried, and packaged in bags. Such preparations store well, defrost quickly, and are very convenient in preparing your favorite dishes.
How long and how to store a frozen product
It has long been known that the highest quality storage of any vegetable and fruit products occurs only in a frozen state. In order for bean pods to retain their nutritional properties for a long time, replenishing the human diet with vitamins, the product is stored in the freezer. Safety is guaranteed for a long time. The only downside is that green beans lose about twenty percent of their beneficial properties.
According to established standards, the product should be stored for no more than six months, but if the integrity of the packaging is not damaged and the refrigerator has not been defrosted, the prepared vegetables are stored much longer than the established period. Please remember that re-freezing food is not recommended.
Defrosting rules
Observing all the subtleties of freezing green vitamins, every housewife has a natural interest in how to properly defrost healthy products, preserving both the usefulness and the external condition as much as possible.
Green beans are a versatile vegetable product. It combines harmoniously with many ingredients. In order for the frozen shoulder blades of beans to give their full potential, the required amount of fruit is removed from the chamber and left in the package in a warm room.
After a short period of time, the fresh green pods will be ready for cooking. They will also serve as a good addition to meat and fish dishes.
