Ripe ordinary beans are usually well stored and not frozen. Seeds have a dense shell, which does not allow them to deteriorate quickly. But to cook them, you must first soften this shell by soaking, so many housewives prefer to harvest beans by freezing boiled or soaked seeds. How this is done is described below.

Is it possible to freeze beans for the winter

Ripe bean seeds can be frozen, but not raw, but after heat treatment. Unlike green beans, they lose a little more nutrients, as they lend themselves to longer pre-treatment. Nevertheless, a sufficient amount of nutrients in them is preserved, and taste qualities are not lost.

Bean Selection and Preparation

Not all beans are suitable for freezing. They should not have visible defects. Their shell should be smooth, shiny, to the touch of each seed - hard. Before freezing, the seeds must undergo a soaking procedure so that the shell softens and can be easily cooked or preserved.

Fridge preparation

The refrigerator does not need special preparation. Of course, if it has an unpleasant odor, then you can wash it, because you are unlikely to like to eat beans that have absorbed all foreign odors. In the freezer, you need to free up space in the vegetable department and set the temperature at –18 ° C.

Did you know? Beans were first mentioned in ancient Chinese manuscripts written 3000 years BC. e. Presumably, it began to be cultivated 2000 years before.

How to freeze beans at home

Boiled beans are usually frozen, canned or after soaking.

A quick way to freeze raw beans

Ripe beans cannot be frozen raw. After freezing, they change color and become wrinkled. They lose most of their moisture, so they become unusable.

Boiled beans

The process of preparing seeds for cooking with subsequent freezing is laborious. First you need to soak them. Some housewives leave them for the night, and some for 1.5–2 days, believing that during this time the beans will swell to the maximum size and their skin will stretch gradually. Soak it in cold water and keep it at room temperature for the first 12 hours, and then put it in the refrigerator for the remaining time. Water needs to be changed periodically. After two days, you need to drain the water, fill in a fresh container, put on fire, boil for 5 minutes and drain again.

Important! Be sure to periodically move the frozen beans with a spatula so that they do not stick together.

Repeatedly fill the beans with water, bring to a boil and simmer until cooked. 10-15 minutes before being cooked, salt. Boiled beans are thrown into a colander and left to drain. A shallow container is prepared that can fit in the freezer. If this is not the case, you can simply cover the box in the freezer with cling film and pour the beans in one layer. In this form, it must be left to freeze. This takes 2-3 hours. The finished product is packed in vacuum bags.

Video: how to freeze beans

Blanched beans

Blanching is a short-term treatment with boiling water. Since the heat treatment is not long (no more than 3 minutes), the shell of raw seeds will not have time to soften. As a result, it turns out that raw fruits will be frozen, so blanching, as a processing option, is not suitable for bean seeds.

Important! It is advisable to pack beans prepared for freezing in packets and containers in batches (as needed for preparing one dish). It is advisable to sign the containers, indicating the date of procurement on them, in order to understand which package to use in the first place.

Canned Beans

Canned beans purchased at the store or prepared on their own can also be frozen. The recipe for preparation is simple, because usually it is frozen with a whole layer, so that then it can be immediately sent to the cooking dish. Some housewives are savvy and turn the product into a homogeneous mass using a blender - in this form it will be a good dressing for the first dishes. It can only be thawed naturally: at room temperature or in the refrigerator.

Freezing Soaked Beans

You can freeze not boiled, but soaked beans. Their shell will soften, stretch and during cooking they will boil to the desired consistency. Harvested beans are peeled and washed. Then fill it with water at room temperature and leave it indoors for 10-12 hours. After the indicated time, they are transferred to the refrigerator and kept here for another 1.5–2 days. It is advisable to change the water periodically. Swollen beans are thrown into a colander, left to drain, dried and packaged in bags. In this form, they are hidden in the freezer.

How much and how to store frozen food

Frozen beans packed in vacuum bags or containers can lie in the freezer for 10–12 months without loss of properties, but provided that the temperature in the chamber is not higher than –18 ° С.

How to defrost beans

If the beans do not require additional heat treatment before consumption, they can be thawed in the refrigerator. That product, which will be a component of some hot dish, you can not defrost, and immediately cook it.

Recommendations for use

Frozen beans will be a great addition to the first and second courses, salads. It is advisable to add them to hot dishes at the last stage of cooking, and to salads with preliminary defrosting. If you unfreeze in a microwave, and then grind it with a blender, you get a great dressing for the first dishes or a delicious paste.

Bean freezing is usually used by housewives when they do not want to spend a lot of time preparing the product for cooking. This is very convenient, especially since beans keep their taste and nutritional qualities when frozen.