7 Ways to Preserve Green Beans: Can, Freeze, Dry, Pickle and More

Have you been blessed with a bumper crop of homegrown beans? Come learn 7 different ways to preserve fresh green beans to make them last. This post covers several different methods to preserve pole or bush beans, including easy recipes and tips on how to can, pickle, dehydrate or freeze green beans and more.

Nothing beats eating fresh, snappy green beans from the garden in the summertime. I love them cooked or raw! Yet we always grow far more than we can use fresh, so we’ve had to get creative and find ways to reduce waste and preserve them over the years. Even if you don’t grow your own, I hope you enjoy these ideas as much as we do!

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Choosing Beans to Preserve

All of the recipes below are ideal to preserve all types of green beans (sometimes called string beans or snap beans) including French beans, Romano or Italian beans, purple beans, or yellow wax beans. Some of our favorite varieties include Northeaster pole beans, Provider bush beans, and Gold Rush yellow wax beans.

For the best quality and results, it’s best to preserve green beans when they’re as fresh as possible. Choose beans that are tender, snappy and crisp, and avoid preserving beans that are limp, tough, stringy, diseased, bruised, or otherwise “imperfect”. You can harvest and store beans in the refrigerator for a few days until you collect enough to preserve, but don’t wait too long!

Freezing Fresh Green Beans

Let’s start with one of the easiest ways to preserve green beans (and one of my favorites)… freezing them! We freeze small containers of green beans all summer long to later add to soups, chili, or right into the pan with other sautéed veggies.

You can freeze fresh green beans raw or blanched first. We’ve tested both methods: both retain good color and flavor, though blanched beans are slightly more crisp at the time of use. If you do blanch them, I highly recommend using a steam blancher instead of boiling water to prevent water-logging.

Either way, the key to enjoying frozen green beans (aka, how to prevent them from getting mushy) is to not overcook them later! All they need is very quick flash of heat and they’re ready to go.

Please see our full guide on how to freeze fresh green beans. It also includes cooking tips!

Canning Green Beans

Green beans are a low-acid food so they must be canned using a pressure canner in order to achieve high enough temperatures to kill pathogens and prevent food borne illness. The only way to safely can green beans using water bath canning is if they’re pickled in vinegar – such as our dill pickled green beans recipe (featured below).

• Pressure canned green beans can be prepared using either the hot-pack or raw-pack method.
  
  
• The hot-pack method involves briefly cooking the green beans in boiling water before packing them into canning jars, which helps to soften them – meaning you can cram more into each jar. The quick pre-cooking also removes some air which can help improve quality and shelf life.
  
  
• On the other hand, the raw pack (aka cold pack) method is the most quick and easy way to can green beans. All you do is fill the jars with raw green beans (washed and trimmed) and then cover with boiling water.
  
  
• See complete instructions and processing times for pressure canning fresh green beans here.

Pickled Green Beans (Can or Fridge)

Who doesn’t love a crisp tangy pickle? Making pickled dilly beans is one of our favorite ways to preserve green beans. They’re a delicious addition to charcuterie boards, veggie burgers, potato salad, Bloody Marys, or straight out of the jar. Our easy pickled beans recipe is safe for water bath canning, or you can make them as quick refrigerator pickles instead – where you can easily make just a jar or two at a time!

Fermented Green Beans

If you haven’t jumped on the lacto-fermentation bandwagon yet, it’s time! These easy fermented green beans with optional dill and garlic taste similar to pickled green beans but with a little extra tang… plus a LOT of extra gut-healthy probiotics.

The fermentation process effectively lowers the pH to preserve the green beans for up to a year (though they’re usually best quality when enjoyed within a few months). It also introduces millions of beneficial enzymes, antioxidants, and probiotics – a considerable perk over vinegar pickling.

Dehydrate

Dehydrating green beans is another great way to preserve them. It’s best to dry green beans using a food dehydrator, though it’s possible to dry them in the oven as well. Once dried, you can enjoy them as a healthy crunchy snack, or rehydrate them to add to meals like soups, stews, or casseroles.

This article provides good instructions on how to dehydrate green beans. If you plan to eat them plain, try seasoning (tossing) the beans with a little drizzle of olive oil (or coconut oil) and sprinkle of salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and/or nutritional yeast before drying!

In Soup (Freeze)

Here’s a clever way to preserve green beans: as an ingredient in soup! Choose a bean-forward soup recipe, make a large batch, and then freeze it in portions to enjoy as easy future meals. I love these durable reusable BPA-free quart containers for freezing soup, chili, homemade vegetable broth and more.

We often make “the garden sink” type soups (using whatever is ready for harvest in the garden) without following a recipe, but this summer I want to try making this simple-but-delicious looking chunky green bean soup or this cream of green bean soup recipe. Here’s another vegetarian green bean soup recipe that you can make in an Instant-Pot (or on the stovetop). I’d double or triple any of these recipes to really use up and preserve an excess of green beans!

NOTE: Make sure to fully and rapidly cool soup before freezing it – such as by using an ice bath, stirring frequently, and/or divvying up a large pot into several smaller (wide and shallow) containers to cool in the fridge without a lid. It’s best for food quality AND food safety to rapidly cool hot foods, and to freeze already-cooled food instead of putting it into the freezer still warm.

Freeze Dry

Last but not least, you can freeze-dry your green beans to preserve them. If you happen to have a freeze drier at home, that is! Unlike drying them in a dehydrator or oven, freeze drying green beans will create ultra-light and crispy dried green beans that last up to 10 years in storage. Use rehydrated freeze dried green beans in any recipe that calls for fresh beans, or enjoy them dried as a snack.

I hope this list gives you plenty of ideas to preserve your harvest and enjoy green beans in new delicious ways. Have fun experimenting, and let me know if I missed any other clever ideas in the comments below!

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