How To Freeze Green Beans The Easy Way Without Blanching
Freeze green beans the easy way – spend less time and have a better texture after freezing by NOT blanching them first, really! We tested blanched vs. unblanched green beans and our whole family agrees – this is a case where easier actually is better.
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Easy recipes are my favorites and this recipe showing how to freeze fresh green beans without blanching is the definition of easy.
You can find lots more simple preserving recipes in the preserving recipe index, including how to freeze snap peas without blanching, how to freeze broccoli blanched or unblanched (yes!), an amazing Addictive Tomato Chutney, and the popular Easy Garlic Refrigerator Pickles.
Can you freeze raw green beans? Yes, absolutely! Green beans are a vegetable that takes well to freezing and are easy to use in recipes from frozen.
But if you want to spend less time freezing fresh green beans and have a better texture after freezing, follow the simple steps outlined here to freeze green beans without blanching them first.
We put it to the test and we all agreed – the beans frozen without blanching were the best.
Wait, don’t you have to blanch green beans before freezing?
Yes, I know almost everything you read says the “proper” way to freeze beans is to blanch first (immerse in boiling water for about 30 seconds, then plunge into an ice bath).
Yes, I know there’s an enzyme that will make the beans break down quicker in the freezer if you store them without blanching.
However, I tested this years ago because our family wasn’t happy with the traditional way to freeze green beans. And I’d like to challenge you to do the same test and see what you think.
A Little Background
Our family used to eat canned green beans. That’s how I grew up and so I never liked the rubbery texture of frozen beans. When I started growing beans, I pickled and canned them and even learned to pressure can, just for green beans (though only a couple of times – pressure canning isn’t simple enough for me!).
But then we had a child – a picky child – who decided she didn’t like canned green beans anymore, but who would eat them if they were frozen or fresh. Since beans were one of only three vegetables she would eat, guess who started freezing beans?
Except I still didn’t like that texture (or the weird squeaking sound they can make as you chew…). So I decided to do some research online and found mostly the recommendation to blanch, of course, but I also found two rebel souls on gardening forums who said they didn’t blanch their beans and they came out “perfect.”
What, really? I had to try it.
The Test: Blanched vs. Unblanched Green Beans
First, I chopped up the beans like I normally did, but then I put them directly into freezer bags. Sheesh, this was easy.
NOTE: Many people have asked about washing the beans first, so here’s my answer: I don’t.
I garden organically and grow pole beans (here’s where I wax poetic about my favorite pole bean, Emerite) so the beans never touch the ground. I trust my cleanliness when picking them. You most definitely can choose to wash them – but you will need to dry them thoroughly before freezing to avoid crystals (you can use a trick I mention in this video to help dry them and/or lay them out for 10-20 minutes on towels).
Next, I used my straw “vacuum sealer” trick to remove as much air as I could from the baggie with a straw before sealing and freezing.
Finally, I froze the bag for two weeks and then served them for dinner – which wasn’t easy when fresh beans were still available, that’s for sure. But a test is a test, so we persevered.
The verdict?
We couldn’t tell a difference from beans that had been blanched. I thought the texture was a little better, too.
BUT – maybe it was because it had only been two weeks. Maybe that enzyme takes longer to start breaking the beans down, as they say.
So, I froze ALL our remaining beans that way. Yep – I didn’t blanch any beans at all that year.
Then I waited to share the results with you until I knew that they could be frozen for longer than two weeks. I needed to be able to tell you if they’d last a whole year in the freezer and hold up like blanched beans.
So, can you freeze green beans without blanching them first?
Yes!
They are just as good – if not better – than green beans we took the time to blanch in the past.
The texture seems better – and my family agrees with me. Really!
The following year with this method I could easily preserve 8 quart bags of beans in about an hour. It certainly goes a lot quicker when there’s no blanching involved!
UPDATE: I’ve since learned there are LOTS of produce that freezes well without blanching – grab this one-page guide to help you decide what you can freeze this way:
How Long To Store Frozen Green Beans
You can keep beans frozen this way up to a year in a non-frost-free freezer (frost-free freezers may produce more freezer burn, so I’d try to use them up sooner).
TIP: I’ve used 2-year old bags of green beans and haven’t noticed much of a difference, quality-wise, when they’re cooked a bit longer like this method. Test and see before throwing anything out – it’s only a quality issue and not a safety issue.
So my challenge? Be a rebel like me – try it and tell me if you think so, too.
Non-Blanched Freeze Green Beans Video
Recipe Ideas
There’s no need to defrost the green beans – add them frozen to:
- Casseroles
- Soups and stews
- Stir fries
- Side dish idea #1: Long-cooked (20 minutes) Green Beans with Bacon and Onions
- Side dish ideas #2: Roasted at 500 degrees – dump green beans frozen on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and seasoning, stir, add chopped onions if you like, and roast for 10-15 minutes.
I’ve preserved them for many years like this now and really will never go back to cumbersome blanching!
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How to Freeze Green Beans Without Blanching
Ingredients
- Fresh green beans
- freezer bags
- straw, optional
Instructions
- Wash green beans if needed and dry completely. (See Notes below)
- Trim green beans ends and cut into 1 to 1-inch lengths (or desired size).
- Place in quart-sized zip-top freezer bags, removing as much air as possible with a straw (or other method) and seal.
- Label with date and what’s in the bag, place in freezer and freeze for up to a year.
- To Use: No need to defrost – use frozen and roast in a 450 degree oven for 5-8 minutes, long cook with bacon, or use in casseroles, soups, and stews all winter long.
Notes
- Wash beans and then use a salad spinner to get as much water off as possible.
- Transfer beans to a towel on the counter and let sit until dry before freezing.
Nutrition
Update #1: Do a Test Bag First
I’ve heard from a couple of readers who tried this method and didn’t care for it – and many more who’ve loved it like we do – and so my suggestion is to try this with a quart, freeze the green beans for about a week or two, cook them and see what your family likes.
I want to be clear that they are still like home-frozen green beans, not firm like fresh, but when cooked in soups and stews for 20 minutes or longer are just as good as blanched frozen beans. So the comparison should be to blanched frozen beans, not to fresh beans.
Update #2: FAQ & Testimonials
I’ve gotten a ton of comments with many people telling me that they don’t blanch either or that they remember their mothers or grandmothers freezing green beans without bothering with the blanching process.
It’s nice to know I’m not alone and that many people are like my family and like the beans better without blanching first.
I’ve also gotten the comments telling me that blanching:
- Stops the enzymes that cause the beans to mature and become tough (I haven’t found that to be true in my experience in eating them, though the science might be right).
- Kills bacteria (I don’t worry about this with my home-grown, organic beans and we eat a lot of raw produce of all kinds, which I don’t plan on stopping any time soon).
- And even that the enzymes, unchecked by blanching, will “break down vitamins so that we are eating empty food.” I found this article on the science of food preparation, however says “The vitamin and mineral content of unblanched frozen foods is relatively stable.”
One thing I know for sure is that I will never freeze green beans any other way (I now freeze snap peas and corn this way now, too) and there are a lot of other people out there who feel the same way as our family does:
From Virginia: “Just ate a bag of ” frozen” Blue Lake. not blanched string beans from july 17, 2012. a little ice on them. washed them under cold water to get rid of most ice. still frozen, put in pot, seasoned my usual way-little salt-cooked a short time not to mush time. they were delicious!!!!!! june 17th——2014!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
From Charlotte: “I have always blanched all my veggies, but when I saw your article I decided to try a test batch, did some blanched and some as you suggested, I was sure the blanched would be much better, they had a prettier color, but I must admit, the un blanched ones were better, much better, easier, faster…. and your method is now my now method too, Thank you, (and this just shows, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!)”
Recipes to use unblanched frozen green beans:
Long-cooked Green Beans with Bacon & Onion
Slow Cooker Italian Sausage Vegetable Soup
Slow Cooker Sweet Chili Chicken and Vegetables
This article has been updated – it was originally published in August of 2012.
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Love your receipt for unblanched beans. Thanks. I would’ve loved to have helped you out with the commissions but did not know which things to tap.
Oh, that’s so sweet to want to, Ginger – thank you. The clickable words are highlighted a different color than the other words. No worries, though!
First of all I would like to introduce myself, Lisa B. I live in New Hampshire. I am in the process , right now, as I type, of organizing my refrigerator. I love fresh vegetables, and I was deciding whether to blanch the green beans first. Now that I have come across your website, I have decided not to. So, here I go. I will keep you informed. Although, I expect you to say to yourself, ( I told you so!) Just a bit of humor. I hope I find more interesting and helpful ideas from you. Even though I was a chef for 25 years, I took time off to raise a daughter. Yes, one child. But one child being a female, going through puberty, can be a handful….. I love to cook. I love cooking for the holidays.
Hello, Lisa, nice to meet you! 😉 I hope you like the beans this way as much as we do. I totally get how kids can make experimenting with cooking difficult (we just try to get food on the table, ha!). And I hope you find more helpful ideas here, too. 🙂
Emerite green beans! There is no need for any other green bean. 🙂
Amen, preach it sister!
Did you see my ode to Emerite here: https://anoregoncottage.com/why-i-love-emerite-pole-beans/
(Though I do now grow a row of Fortex along with them, since they seem to work well together, but only if I have room…)
Are there any other vegetables that can be frozen this way? I always have a bumper crop of broccoli and I hate the blanching routine. I would be interested in broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, squash, etc. Thanks!
I have these on my list to try Cathie. But if I were you I would freeze a few broccoli spears and try them after a week to see if you like them unblanched – it might be worth it to you if you have a big harvest and save some time!
Peppers (all kinds – green, red, yellow, orange, purple, sweet or hot) are easily frozen without blanching.
I cut off the tops, remove the seeds and freeze some whole for stuffing, and cut up others to freeze in pieces. When you want to use the peppers, just hold them under running water for a few seconds. They are great to cook with.
Frozen peppers aren’t as crisp as fresh ones in salads, but they work well in salsa and in relish and anywhere you want cooked peppers (pasta sauce, stroganoff, stews.) One of my favorite ways to eat them is in a veggie blend of peppers, cherry tomatoes and summer squash, seasoned with fresh basil, garlic, pepper, sea salt and a few drops of olive oil – all tossed into a glass bowl and microwaved for 2 minutes.
Not a veggie – but blueberries freeze well without blanching. Just be sure they are dry when you pack them.
Just a tip to get the air from your ziplock bags. Close almost all the way, then sink into a bowl of cold water, leaving just the open part out of the water. Close up, dry bag and done! The pressure of the water squeezes out more air, leaving the bag almost vacuum sealed! Oh, and I rarely blanch anything!
Good to know!
Dear Jami, thank you for your information. I just put about 5 quarts of green beans in to freeze. I have a tip. There are only two people; so I freeze my vegies on a cookie sheet first to prefreeze them. I put a layer of non stick foil then my beans. I repeat this process one layer on top of the other. I take them out and they slide right of the foil. I fold the foil and save until the next batch is ready. I can reach in the gallon bag and get out as many servings as I need the reseal it until I need more.
Thanks for the tip, Arlene!
Just found your blog via google. Asked how to freez tomatoes and green beans. They led me to you and I’m so glad! Good to know where to go for everyday answers.
I’m so glad you found me, too, Lois! I love your description of “everyday answers” – that’s exactly what my goal is for the site. 🙂
Are you talking about freezing fresh tomatoes? ??
Would love that information as well. Thanks for the great tips on freezing green beans!! I now know where I went wrong when i froze mine 😆😆
Hop you like them this way, Shannon!
Thank you for trying this! I just hate the blanching step because it heats up the kitchen. I had not tried to freeze beans without blanching, but I have frozen squash. I froze zucchini, cut up without blanching. If you use it in a longish cook, within about 8 months, it taste great. Delecata squash seeded and then frozen is amazing! I just don’t get the enzyme stoppage, maybe freezers are better now? Here’s to less work!!!!! Oh, mushrooms will keep maturing when frozen…… my Mom tried that ages ago and found that out, so if you have extra mushrooms they need to be cooked or dried.
These are good tips, Ann – thanks for sharing! Enjoy your unblanched beans. 🙂
If you saute your mushrooms first, they won’t keep maturing. They’ll be ready to dump into any dish that requires sauteed mushrooms.
I am so confused. Yesterday, I read your blog and was all excited to try this method. Well, my husband came home and was lecturing me on how ans why you HAVE to blanche them as a food safety thing. Blah blah on and on about botulism. And I guess I don’t know how that would happen if they freeze and stay frozen vs. canning them. I can understand if they were incorrectly canned that bacteria could grow.
Anyone have advice or info on the safety of this method?
Botulism is not a worry in frozen foods, Brenda, and it’s actually pretty rare in canned foods as well. Like I explain in the article, blanching is given as a way to stop enzyme growth that supposedly makes for a better eating experience. With green beans, we prefer unblanched, though I know not everyone does. It is perfectly safe, though, just like we freeze many fresh foods unblanched like berries.
Here is more on freezing from an extension office (they of course recommend blanching!): http://extension.missouri.edu/p/GH1501
And that’s what I thought. I have a 1 year old, which is why I love saving time, but also want to be careful that his food is safe. And you are so right! We don’t blanch berries!
Wondering how you cook with the frozen beans? Do you let them thaw? Thanks!
No, I usually cook them from frozen, Simone. I dump them from the bag into soups and stews, onto a cookie sheet to roast in a 400 oven with diced onions, or long-cooked with bacon like I wrote about here.
Hope that gives you some ideas!
Appreciation for your guidance
I just stumbled upon your wonderful blog and am thrilled! This is our first year on our farm with a large garden and I can see I will be using your blog a ton for information. And ‘unblanced” or “unblanched”- I don’t really care because your easy green bean storage is just what I was looking for!! Thanks for your lovely blog!
Thank you so much, Katie – this just made my day! Let me know if you have any questions or anything I can help with – congrats on your new farm adventure!!
incompetent proof-reading:
Twice unblanched is spelt ‘unblanced’. Careless!
It was actually auto-correct, since Google doesn’t see unblanched as a word, but thank you for pointing it out so I could fix it. (Your method could be a bit kinder, though.)
I agree! Is this a spelling bee? Cheers from Nova Scotia.
Thanks, Frank! Hey, my husband’s great grandparents were from NS and his great grandmother’s maiden name was Mosher – he wonders if you’re a long-lost cousin. 🙂
Absolutely we are! I have all the records from the early 1700’s when the British General Cornwallis sent his agent to Germany and Switzerland to entice settlers to come to Nova Scotia to help found Halifax. (The Ship names (8) and the Settlers Names and what ships they came over on.) He was able to bring over 2,500 and after helping in founding Halifax, they went and founded Lunenburg, NS. and other places in Nova Scotia. “Mosher” in those days, was “Moser” and mostly if not all, of german speaking Swiss origin. How ironic! Opposite sides of North America! Just for the record, I am certain Oregon is very similar to Nova Scotia and the one State in the US. I regret I never got to! Cheers!
Fun! And we did just visit Lunnenburg where Brian’s grandfather Corkum emigrated from in the 1920s where all I kept saying was, this looks -and feels – like Oregon. 🙂
D NICOL….REALLY? You really should focus on getting a life.
Thank you Jami, your method is very helpful and thank you for sharing! 🙂
Thank YOU, Gayle!
I blanched at the arrogance and arid pedantry of your comment. Blah!
That’s for you D Nichol btw
appreciate this wonderful blog. mine turned out great and will not ever do greenies any different in the future. shared this and all who tried it said positives. Thank you so much. New to gardens & preserving.
Dont care how ewe spell/say it, its just plane a grate way two dew beans. (ref D N)
Thanks, Mac – I’m so glad to know your experience and that of your friends who tried it!
I think I’ve fallen in love! Your blog is beautiful, informational and so very charming. Thank you! My husband is from Oregon and I’m an Alberta girl who imported him here to Canada. We grow a 10,000 square foot garden and can and freeze a lot of food each year. I don’t blanch my peas anymore (and prefer them that way), and hit the web to death out whether it was really necessary to blanch my many, many quarts of beans. I did my first batch, but tonight’s are going right into the freezer. Thank you!
Oh how sweet – thank you, Lauren! I hope you like the beans – I like unblanched peas, too.
I have frozen my beans like this over 5 years. I will never blanch again.
Yay – so good to know, Robin!
I vacuum pack my green beans in this way but I do wash them. Bush variety and Sandy soil so it’s a must. Do you think this would work on shelled limasl too?
I would test it and try it, Tom – it would make it easier if you liked them unblanched, too.
Thank you so much for this article. Here I was, not looking forward to blanching, drying and freezing our bounty of garden green beans tomorrow. I had always heard that you had to blanch before freezing, but I am going to try this method. So the most work I have is cutting up the beans. 🙂
I hope you like this method, Rosemary! I do want to caution that some readers have not (I don’t get it, though we’re all different, ha!), so you may want to freeze and then eat some a test batch before freezing your entire crop this way. Just a thought since I’ve heard from some readers (I know there are a lot of comments, so you may have missed those).
I’m going to try this I will let you know how they turn out
Great!
My family uses cloth zippered pillow cases. I am going to try it this time. I just finished 29 quarts canned, and now I want the easy way.
How do you cook them after freezing so they don’t have the rubbery texture?
I cook them in soups or stews and sometimes boil, but mostly if I’m serving as a side dish I’ll roast them (single layer, frozen on a pan in a 400 degree oven for 10-15 min until done) or long-cook them with broth and bacon, which my family loves – here is that recipe: https://anoregoncottage.com/long-cooked-green-beans-with-onions-bacon-cooking-with-unblanched-frozen-green-beans/
How do these rate when cooked as a veggie for dinner? Do you just place them frozen into a pot of boiling, salted water and return it to boiling? Or are they better just used in soups, stews, etc.?
You can do that, Midge – I have had good success roasting them: place frozen in a single layer on a sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil and spices and roast at 400 degrees until done to your liking (about 15 minutes for me) and this recipe for long-cooked with bacon.