Hope you blanched them before freezing. I place the frozen beans in a covered dish or casserole like a Corning Ware, and microwave them about 3 minutes. Then drain out any water. I do not add any water when cooking them. Kentucky Wonders I have found don't freeze as well as some other green types. Now, I much prefer bush yellow waxed beans as they have almost the exact same taste as fresh, even though they were blanched and frozen. In all cases, be it beans, peas, corn, etc. I do not add any water to them when cooking in the microwave. You would be surprised at how much water drains out once they are cooked. I just cooked up some big limas I froze two years ago and they were really good.

Well there is always the classic Green Bean Casserole with the french fried onions and cream of mushroom soup. ;)

Like you, we don't care for the texture of frozen GB nearly as well as the canned ones so we can most of ours. But others have just the opposite opinion so it is all a matter of taste.

When we do use the frozen ones we either hard cook them with diced onions and a slice or 2 of bacon and some Cavender's seasoning (it fixes everything!) or we add them to mixed main dish casseroles such as tuna and noodles, chicken tetrazzini, beef burgundy, homemade vegetable soup, etc.

Dave

They won't be as crisp as fresh but I steam them as mentioned about or boil them for a few minutes and then I saute them in a little olive oil and garlic...delish.

Do they stay rubbery when used in vegetable soup (not pureed)? I would use them for things like that.

If you get really desperate to use them up, most dogs love green beans. You can supplement kibble with green beans (or pumpkin) for weight loss or just for a treat. Dogs that are fed fresh food (raw or cooked) can have green beans as part of their regular diet.

Melissa

Ken
You are so right about the Kentucky Wonder beans. They freeze OK, they just don't cook in the microwave. They come out like rubber no matter how long you cook them. It only takes a couple minutes on the stove though and they come out fine.

An old time cooking method for tough green beans which seems to have been lost. Place fresh or frozen green beans in a pan. Pour milk in to about 1/2 the depth of the beans. Add a pat of butter, put pan lid on ajar slightly and simmer, stirring once or twice, until the milk has almost evaporated. May take 20 or 30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Cooks the life out of the beans but they are oh-so-good. Give it a try.

Never heard of that method nandina but I might just try it. I don't have any rubbery greenbeans but the thought of cooking them in milk might be just a new way or a new taste. I love green beans...well I have to tell you that I just love beans of any kind...and peas too. If I was dropped on a deserted island and could only take one food, it would be beans.

My yellow wax beans aren't rubbery after being frozen and then microwaved. THe green beans and even a purple type I used to grow, seemed to offer an odd flavor once cooked. I don't grow the puple or green ones anymore. I also grew sugar snaps, and they seemed to be a bit tough and stringy pods. Lastly, snow peas that are blanched and frozen, lose all that crisp texture they offer when cooked fresh or in a stir fry. Now, I see frozen breaded and fried stringbeans as a 'snack'? Kind of like a coated french fry.

I prefer to make dilly beans out of my Blue Lakes.

Although - I have snow/snap peas coming off now. I prefer to treat them like berries. That is - remove strings, wash - then spread on a tray and quick freeze - no blanching. They are great tossed into stir fries toward the end of the cooking process, and maintain their crispiness.

I meant to try beans that way next summer - I know, I know, the book says to blanch them.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

One thing about eating wraw green beans is they do have some kind of toxin that isn't very good for you if they are eaten raw. Usually cooking is the best way to treat them. If frozen and then made into a bean casserole they can be quite tasty. Yes, blanching helps to stablize the enzymes in them.

I freeze all my green beans as I don't care for canned beans. My favorite ways of preparing them are sauteed with olive oil after thawing. I add fresh ginger, garlic and a splash of soy for asian inspired meals, or onion, garlic and a paste tomato for a more italian inspired flavor. I also enjoy them roasted, pan blackened, and of course they are great in soups.

In general I feel the flavor is better if the beans are cooked to a more tender state than I would fresh beans, and to remember they aren't fresh garden beans, which is a summertime pleasure.

Enjoy!

I think the variety of green beans is your problem, along with perhaps your type of soil (pH is 6.0 to 6.5 and amended with 10-20-10). "Kentucky Wonder" is very good fresh but not when preserved in any way (canned, acidified, frozen, or dried) even though they are prolific - that is not the point when you want to have some in the middle of winter. Next year try "Contender". So much better in texture when frozen or dried. Any yellow bean is good fresh but not preserved except acidified (dilled) when it produces an exceptionally delicious "pickle". Purple beans give you the right signal for when they are done but lose flavor when preserved, so they are also not on the top of the list for preserving.

I blanch my Contenders for 3 minutes, they go into an ice water bath 5 minutes, onto a cookie sheet in a single layer (no need to pat dry), into the freezer until solid, and then they are put in huge freezer bags so that later I can pull out just what is needed for a meal (since they stay loose). I've found that putting the frozen beans into a B&D steamer for 15 minutes keeps all the fresh flavor intact and that the nutrients are still in there.

My mother cooked green beans "dead". She'd boil them for hours until those lifeless things had no residual nutrients left - even the bacon drippings didn't make them better tasting, let alone leaving all the bad sodium nitrates left in there. She even poured the water with all of the inherent dissolved vitamins down the drain instead of in a compost pile, or even for soup base for heaven's sake! It was food to eat but it was not nourishment. I hope we have come a long way from that kind of "just food" to a more healthy eating plan and with real nourishment. Just because Grandma did it that way does not mean that it was the right way. And, I am a Grandma.
Nancy

Thanks for all the feedback! I cooked some sauteeing in olive oil with some garlic and spring onions and they were pretty good this way. Using some more in a mixed vegetable soup.

I will have to look for 'contender' seed, they sound good!

I grew Rattlesnake beans year before last and they were fabulous...fresh and frozen. I might try contender but I usually prefer a climber. I have been seeds from several in the forums..

I will be growing all sorts of different pole beans this coming spring in addition to my saved seeds for purple peacocks, Kentucky wonder and pole wax (bought new seeds and traded a bit here, different species). I do not have seed for either contender or rattlesnake so I will keep those on my 'want' list. I better sow the ones I have now though, make sure it all fits in the garden, before going out and getting more...so many beans, so little time (and space).

I really enjoyed the purple yardlong beans I planted last spring. If I picked them when they had just plumped up they were pretty good. Usually between a foot and 18 inches long. Some people call them asparagus beans because they think they taste like asparagus but I didn't really notice that so much. The purple ones didn't seem to get attacked by aphids as much as the green ones did. I chopped them into 1-2 inch pieces and threw them in stir frys or soups fresh. Ones I cut, blanched and froze were usually thrown into the crock pot with soup or stew fixings.

I grew the red noodle two years ago. Quite unusual. They were mixed with my others and frozen. I didn't really try to compare them for flavor, but at that time I was only growing pole types both green and purple.

Blue Lake Pole and Pole Romano are my picks for frozen green beans. I don't care for Kentucky Wonder fresh or frozen. I really like the Filet bush type for fresh, excellent young.
Never can green or yellow beans unless pickled.
I use the beans for soups, green bean casserole or steam them.
This weekend making ham, green bean and potatoes in the crock pot, but using the dried green beans for that.
I will be out of green soon, but have oddles of yellow wax still to use up.

I don't know if your cream of green bean soup comment was tongue in cheek... but, we love that soup! It is a little similar to cream of asparagus soup. We like it topped with parmesan or romano cheese.

I use frozen green beans a lot. I usually cook them with plenty of garlic and onion and make more than we need. I cook them until they are an unattractive gray/green color - that way they are tender. Then a couple days later I make the cream of green bean soup with the leftovers. I love it paired with potato pancakes (the kind that use left over mashed potatoes).

If you need meat or "chew" you can add ham, sausage, and / or potatoes and carrots to your soup.

It's just a little quirk of our household, lol.

trsinc I was serious about the cream of green bean soup. I have not done it yet but i thing it should be delicious. It would solve the texture problem. Also, I have lots of fresh herbs in the garden right now that I could use for seasoning it, parsley, dill, cilantro, fresh onion tops. I even have some baby potatoes that might be large enough now to pull out to mix in with it, to make it creamy? Getting hungry just thinking about it, I think I will try this tonight.

I think cream of green bean soup would be fab, since it would taste very similar to the green bean casserole that everyone loves. I eat mine sometimes with spaetzel, fake bacon (I'm a vegetarian but you can use real bacon) scallions sauteed in olive oil and a dusting of parmesean.

I made a "green soup" last weekend that has been some of the best soup ever. It was a kind of clean out the fridge thing, although I had a basic theme in mind. The ingredients were one yellow onion, two large stalks celery, four small turnips, and a half a bag of italian style green beans, minced. I also threw in about a cup of frozen mixed vegetables that I had languishing in the fridge. While that was boiling in broth, I also boiled up 1/2 cup of green split peas in four times their volume of vegetable broth (since I'm veggie I use veg. broth but you could use chicken). After they were really, really mushy I pureed them with my stick blender and added them to the soup as the last thing. In the meantime, I seasoned the soup with Penzey's Pasta sprinkle, (which is basically italian seasoning) and about 2 cloves minced garlic. I added those little BB sized pasta dots, acini de pepe maybe they are called? When they were cooked through I added the pea broth and seasoned to taste. Yummy!

I'm just eating the last of the soup tonight, and I forgot to mention two of the main ingredients--about a cup of frozen peas, and a can of garbanzo beans (because I didn't have cannelini beans). This is a greener, higher protein take on "risi e bisi" combined with turnip pea potage. It was yummy topped with some parmesean too.

Hi,
I often fix my frozen beans (and my left over fresh steamed) Polanaize Style. I'll simmer the frozen beans a little longer than I would fresh ones. Drain. In a large frying pan brown some breadcrumbs in butter (or butter and oilve oil) until brown. Turn off heat, toss in beans, mix well and serve.

Frozen green beans sauted with garlic in butter (MAYBE a little white wine - why not?) then at the end add some almond slices. Gives you the crunch you miss after the green beans get a little limp... I keep a bag of almond slices just for this. You could squeeze on a little lemon if you're feeling frisky!

Great suggestions all.

I have the easiest recipe that you can ever find. If you like Thai/Asian food serve this over rice.

brown meat (any meat ground beef, chicken, pork)
drain fat if needed
add green beans and oyster sauce to taste ( I use about 1/4 cup) (bought at Asian market)

serve over rice

yummy- this is the only way our kids will eat green beans and they love it.

I usually blanch them before freezing. I find this step to be crucial

I've attached a link to a nice video tutorial on how to blanch

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.guidery.com/article/view/how_to_blanch

I have a batch of green bean salad I froze September 2013....

That's over two years in the freezer is that OK to eat?

It is probably safe to eat but the taste and the overall quality may be poor after that long. Thaw it, taste it and then decide if it is worth keeping.

Dave

I have tons of frozen green beans but when I cook them they taste Blane and mushy what am I doing wrong? The first time I let them unthaw before cooking the next time I just placed the straight from freezer in boiling water still about the same result???

It may be the way you prepared them for freezing - did you blanch them first and then into an ice bath? If not they turn mushy. Then drain well, pat dry, spread out on cookie sheet to flash freeze and then package them.

Or it may be that you are just over-cooking them once you take them out of the freezer. I do not thaw first, just dump them into already boiling water, let it return to a boil and then reduce to simmer for approx. 5-6 min.

And it could also be the quality of the beans themselves. Some varieties freeze better than others. And harvest them when still young and tender. If left on the vine too long before picking some varieties will lose all flavor.

Dave

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan, add some chopped ginger and garlic. When it is hot and sizzling add the frozen green beans and a splash of water, and sliced onion. Cover and turn down the heat and let it simmer for 5-6 minutes. Remove the lid and give it a splash of soy sauce. Continue to cook so much of the liquid is absorbed/evaporated. Enjoy.

Canfan - you forgot the Portabella mushrooms! I made that recipe last night with fresh fillet beans.

Ah... Will have to have some on hand for the next batch.... Thanks for the tip LoneJack.

We love our blanched/frozen green beans cooked in a pat of butter and lightly salted. I wasn't totally impressed with the quality until I purchased a FoodSaver which keeps the beans dry--no more ice crystals in the bag.