Preserving the Harvest

How to Freeze Green Beans

How to Freeze Green Beans
How to Freeze Green Beans

How To Freeze Green Beans

Wondering how to freeze green beans? You’re in luck! This article gives step by step instructions for freezing your bounty of beans while they are fresh and in season. I’ve been freezing green beans for years now and I love having these delicious veggies stashed away in my freezer for the winter!

This post contains affiliate links or advertisements. You won’t pay extra but I may earn a small commission if you purchase products through those links. Thank you for supporting The Self Sufficient HomeAcre!

How to Blanch Green Beans

The first step in freezing vegetables (including green, wax, or Roma beans) is blanching. This step involves heating the vegetables through to kill the natural enzymes. Freezing vegetables without blanching (or under blanching them) causes deterioration of the plant matter, leading to loss of nutrients, flavor, color, and texture.

Begin by washing beans thoroughly and snipping the ends off. You can also snap them into smaller pieces or leave them whole depending on your preference.

How to Freeze Green Beans

Boiling Water Blanching

Blanching vegetables in boiling water is the best way to prepare green beans for freezing. In the past, I have used microwaving and steam blanching but found that these methods don’t provide the best quality of frozen green beans because the enzymes aren’t destroyed as well as in boiling water blanching.

  • Bring a pot of water to a boil
  • Add beans
  • Blanch for 2 minutes for small beans and 4 minutes for large beans
  • Remove beans from boiling water
  • Place beans into a bowl of cold water to chill quickly
  • Drain beans when they are completely cool
How to Freeze Green Beans

Chilling and Freezing Blanched Beans

As soon as beans are blanched, remove them from heat and chill quickly. The faster your veggies are chilled, the more nutrients they will retain. Here are several ways to chill blanched vegetables quickly:

  • Place in cold water
  • Place in a bowl of ice water
  • Spread on cookie sheet and place in freezer

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Pack Green Beans in Freezer Bags

Once your beans are chilled, pack them in freezer bags or use a vacuum sealing system to package them in freezer bags with the air removed.

Vegetables frozen in vacuum-sealed bags will last much longer than those stored in zip-lock type bags. I use both types of bags, although I prefer the vacuum-sealed bags. Any veggies froze in zip lock bags are used first so they don’t get freezer burn.

Be Sure to Label Them!

Make sure you label the freezer bags with the contents and date they were processed! This makes it much easier to grab what you want and use your frozen goods up before they get freezer burned.

Do you freeze green beans and other veggies for the winter? Leave a comment!

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

How to Freeze Green Beans...3 methods for blanching and freezing green beans. Learn to preserve your harvest!

45 Comments on “How to Freeze Green Beans

  1. Green beans are one crop I haven’t attempted to grow yet. Maybe next year! But this is super helpful, as I can imagine we wouldn’t be able to finish all of them off without saving some for later use. Thanks, Lisa!

    And thanks for sharing this post with us on the Embracing Home and Family Link-up party. We hope you join us again this Friday!

    -Cherelle

  2. Thanks goodness for being able to freeze vegetables. They got us through the quarantine when we were not allowed to leave our residence for 14-days. – Margy

    1. Oh my goodness… I’m so glad you had them stashed away, Margy! We went through a lot of our food stores this spring too.

  3. We eat our fresh green beans so quickly, I wish I had enough to freeze. I do freeze tomatoes, peppers, and corn.

  4. Thanks for the info. I know my parents often froze them, but when I was a child I didn’t pay attention. Now that I need to know these things, they’re no longer here.

  5. this is the first year I have frozen green beans. I usually can them but so far this year I have never had enough at a time to do a load so am freezing them in small amounts. If we don’t like using them frozen I can always dehydrate them.

  6. Thanks for this info. I didn’t know that the vegetables would lose nutrients, etc., if not blanched. I also didn’t realize that that the blanching time was only 2 minutes. I’m hoping for a ton of green beans this year so I’ll give this method a try! 🙂

    1. Hi Zabrina… I was afraid to use a pressure canner until I’d tried it. 🙂 This is a much easier way to preserve your green beans for the winter… I hope you get some put up this summer!

  7. Freezing produce is so much easier than canning. Also faster! Sometimes the produce comes in so much at once it is good to know how to properly blanch and freeze.

    1. Hi Rebecca,
      I like having a lot of different options for putting up my produce for the winter. 🙂
      Thanks for stopping by!

  8. Next year when I can begin planting a small plot will have me wanting a freezer for all sorts if harvests including my favourite green beans haricots verts.

    1. Hi Chava!
      A freezer is a wonderful thing to have. It’s an easy way to put up your produce for later! Best wishes with your veg garden!

  9. This is my first year freezing beans since I was a little girl we canned them instead. I did the no blanching method with this first batch. I plan to blanch the second batch and can the third batch and we shall see what method comes out on top.
    Glenna
    “I’m A Crazy Homesteader” Youtube

    1. Hi Glenna!
      Best wishes with your experiment! Stop by and let me know which method is your favorite. 🙂

    1. Hi Arlene!
      Best wishes with your bean harvest! This is an easy way to save your veggies for the winter. 🙂

  10. Thank you for hosting! This is what I featured the week of 8-3 to 8-7 on my blog. On Tuesday was Banana Cream Pie with Hazelnut Crust. Wednesday was Apple Crumb Pie. Thursday was Maple Pecan Pie. And winding up this week was my No Bake Chocolate Cream Pie with Oreo Crust. Enjoy!

  11. Love these tips on the green beans, Lisa! I never have ice in my freezer so I never end up blanching things, but this makes me want to turn the ice feature back on so I can eat fresh garden green beans all the time!

    1. Hi Rachael!
      I don’t use ice… I just use cold water from the tap and then drain the beans and stick them in the fridge for a couple of hours to completely cool them. 🙂

  12. Thanks so much for featuring my Fresh Green Bean, Tomato & Basil Salad! When it’s close to 100 in Texas in the summer, we have lots of salads for dinner! I always have about 4 different types of salad (veggie & fruit) in covered glass bowls ~ front & center in the fridge ~ to pull out as side dishes, or for my husband to snack on while he’s watching TV. ** Thank you for hosting this great Linky party too!

    1. Thank you for sharing your recipes with us, Cindy! I’m happy to host and feature your recipe! Having several kinds of salad in the fridge at a time is a great idea. 🙂

  13. Thank you for explaining why it’s important to blanch them,a s well as steps to do so. I really appreciate it. And thanks for sharing on the Homestead Blog Hop. I hope we see more this Wednesday.

    1. Happy to share, Kelly! And thank you for hosting the Homestead Blog Hop! See you tomorrow 🙂

    1. Hi Stacie…glad to help out! Freezing is so much easier than pressure canning…this is how I like to preserve my beans for later.

    1. Thanks so much, AnnMarie! This is by far my favorite way to preserve my veggies for winter. 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.