A Few Easy Recipes for Cooking Frozen Green Beans
The beneficial properties of green beans, due to the presence of many trace elements and vitamins in the vegetable, have been well studied, and the product itself is loved by everyone who is not indifferent to their health and just delicious food. But you can try the green pods removed from the garden only in the summer months, because you cannot keep the beans juicy and crispy for a long time.
In order not to deny yourself the pleasure and prepare healthy side dishes in the offseason, green beans are frozen for the winter. This is the simplest and most affordable way, in which the pods do not lose their taste, consistency, or useful properties.
How to freeze green beans for the winter?
- fruits are just beginning to form, not exceeding 3–7 mm in length, with juicy soft pulp and loose skin;
- the leaves have an even green or yellowish, depending on the variety, shade and are easily damaged by the nail.
The thicker and juicier the pod leaves are, the easier it is to prepare delicious side dishes, salads and casseroles from frozen green beans according to the recipe. Many housewives send pods to the freezer, plant raw materials only by washing and cutting off coarse parts. In this case, when you need to cook the beans, the defrosted pods will lose their rich color and turn brown. To prevent this from happening, green beans must be blanched. How to freeze green beans for the winter, and if there are some other features of this process?
From the previously washed green bean pods, the rough part is cut off, where the stalk is attached.
For the convenience of storing and preparing bean dishes, the pods are cut into pieces from 2 to 5 cm long.
Green beans are immersed in boiling water for three minutes. During this time, the vegetable will not lose its consistency, but the pods will become elastic, and most importantly, they will acquire a beautiful shade.
From boiling water, beans are transferred to ice water, which will fix the color and cool the raw materials in three minutes.
The green beans laid back in a colander are dried.
Green beans, ready for freezing for the winter, are laid out in tightly closed bags.
In this form, the vegetable can be stored for up to 4-6 months. But here it is important to remember that such a product cannot be re-frozen. Beans not only lose their appearance, but also most of the vitamins.
The industry uses a blast of very cold air to freeze green beans. Therefore, the process lasts only a few seconds, and the pieces of the finished product are crumbly, without adhering lumps and ice inclusions.
Freezing green beans in this way at home will not work. But:
- sprinkling the already blanched and dried pods on a shallow pan;
- then sending it to the freezer, you can get quality friable beans for any culinary delight.
The temperature should be as low as possible, and the layer of pods should be as low as possible.
How to cook frozen green beans for the winter?
Frozen green beans are used to prepare a wide variety of dishes, ranging from vegetarian soups and light dietary side dishes to hearty second courses with mushrooms and meat, salads and casseroles.
At the same time, almost all such recipes for preparing frozen green beans are quite simple and do not take much time.
Boiled beans recipe
Most often, boiled green beans become a component of this or that culinary dish. Pods fried in vegetable or butter are slightly less common in frozen green beans recipes.
It is not at all difficult to prepare such a blank.
- Beans are boiled in salted water without defrosting. Moreover, after boiling, vegetables should be on the fire for no more than 5-7 minutes.
- It is more convenient to fry pods thawed at zero temperature. This will prevent them from softening and adding too much water to the saucepan. The frying process also lasts no more than 6 minutes.
Already in this form, green beans are an excellent addition to baked or boiled meat, stove and sea fish. But if desired, sweet pickled pods are added to the juicy green pods bow, soy sauce and chopped rye croutons.
This salad will satisfy hunger, invigorate and will be a good addition to baked potatoes or minced meat products.
In early spring, a light salad of fresh radishes and green beans with first herbs and shallots will help bring summer closer.
There are many options for such simple dishes.
Due to their neutral taste, beans are combined with tomatoes and potatoes, sweet corn and legumes, pumpkin and pasta, mushrooms, and other ingredients.
How else can you cook green beans that are frozen in summer and badly needed in winter, when the body is naturally deficient in vitamins and fresh vegetables?
Hearty salad of green beans, boiled potatoes and eggs
This dish will require:
- 300 grams of green beans frozen for the winter;
- 500 grams potatoesboiled and cut into slices;
- 3 hard-boiled eggs;
- 1 medium-sized, mild onion.
The beans are boiled, discarded on a sieve and dried. The eggs are cut in half or into quarters. The onion is cut into thin half rings.
The pods, along with potato wedges and onions, sprinkled with oil, are baked with salt, pepper and spices to taste. Garlic cut into slices, added a few minutes before cooking, will well emphasize the taste. The vegetables are removed from the heat when a golden brown crust forms on the potatoes.
To pour the salad, prepare a mixture of a spoonful of lemon juice, a couple of tablespoons of Dijon mustard and 70 grams of olive oil. If necessary, add wine vinegar, salt and spices to the sauce. You can decorate the dish and add brightness with an egg, basil greens and lemon zest.
Green beans recipe with tomatoes and garlic
For 400 grams of green beans frozen for the winter, this salad will require:
- a spoonful of vegetable oil;
- a few cloves of garlic;
- 8-10 cherry tomatoes;
- salt to taste.
While the beans are boiling, they heat oil in a frying pan, in which they put thinly sliced garlic and spices. Basil and oregano are the best for vegetables in this case. Then tomatoes are added to the dishes, and after a couple of minutes, boiled beans. On the fire, the dish spends a total of 4–5 minutes, after which it can be served with beef or duck.
Green beans with fried onions and mushrooms
Foods needed for salad:
- 300 grams of small peeled onions;
- 500 grams of green beans;
- 5 tablespoons of vegetable oil;
- 300 grams of fresh champignons or other mushrooms of your choice;
- a spoonful of soy sauce;
- 4 cloves of garlic;
- a sprig of thyme;
- lemon juice, pepper and salt to taste.
In a frying pan, melt 3 tablespoons of oil, in which small onions seasoned with salt are fried well.When stirring, this process can take up to 30 minutes. During this time, you can boil and cool the green beans frozen for winter.
A spoonful of oil is heated in a saucepan, where then mushrooms cut into slices are added. They should be fried for about 10 minutes, until browned. Then the remaining oil is poured into the same dish and garlic, thyme, salt and pepper are added. After half a minute, when the aroma appears, the stewpan is removed from the heat. Hot vegetables and mushrooms are mixed, seasoned with lemon juice and soy sauce and served.
Chicken Noodles with Frozen Green Beans: Soup Recipe
To prepare the dish you will need:
- 200 grams of green beans;
- 200 grams of boiled chicken breast fillet;
- 1 liter of low-fat chicken broth;
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
- chopped spoon garlic;
- 1 small onion:
- a few feathers of green onions;
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce;
- cilantro and basil.
Chopped garlic, ginger, chopped onions and beans are fried in oil, then the beans are carefully removed, and the rest of the vegetables are added to the chicken broth. Soy sauce is poured here, chicken fillet cut into pieces is put in, if necessary, the soup is salted and pepper. For another 10 minutes, the pan remains on the fire, then the soup is seasoned with thin noodles, and then, shortly before cooking, add the beans. When serving, the finished dish is decorated with herbs.