Tuesday Tip: Blanching green beans

Green beans Green beans happen to be a favorite here at the HQ.  Scott and I love them and feel that fresh green beans are just about a perfect food.

The downside of fresh green beans is that they can turn quickly.  Going from bright green to a mottled color in just a few days.

Yuck.  No one wants to eat that.  Well except for Rocky, he doesn’t care what the green beans look like, he’ll eat ’em up.

For me, green beans take a lot of prep time.  Going through pounds of beans and trimming them takes a lot of work.  See I trim both ends because I don’t like the stringy pointy parts.  They must be dealt with!  And because processing green beans takes me a good bit of time, I’m not looking to it several times over the course of the week.  Once and I’m done.  Over and out.

I have found that if I blanch my whole pile of green beans after washing and trimming them, they are ready to go for the rest of the week.  I don’t have to worry about them turning on me getting that mottled color.  And if I feel like maybe I’m not going to get to them in a timely fashion once they are blanched, I can just toss them in the freezer for another time.

Blanching veggies is super easy.  A big pot of boiling water and toss the veggies in.  Allow to boil for a few minutes (time depends on the type of  veggies, cauliflower takes longer than green beans for example).  I do not salt my water because I add salt later before I serve them. :)

Blanching my green beans ahead of time makes later prep work a breeze.  All I have to do is drizzle them with a little olive oil and seasonings, then toss in an oven to heat through.  Super fast and simple!  Especially when you’re dealing with super hungry people who just got done with some intense working out.  These can go from fridge to bellah relatively quickly!

Prep work is a huge factor in helping us make it through the week.  Allowing us to put together homemade fresh meals each day fairly quickly.  Try blanching some green beans as part of your prep work!  And remember they can always be frozen for later as well!

8 thoughts on “Tuesday Tip: Blanching green beans

  1. What animal does a “Green Bean” come from? :-) Blame Lawgirl for me dropping by. I’m pure carnivore and don’t even know what vegis are except for french fries, those are a vegetable right?

  2. I love green beans, but not so much my family. Though – as my son puts it- he doesn’t love vegetables, but he eats them because he has to – and I’m all right with that logic. So I have green beans when I’m in the mood, and the rest of the family eats them because they have to :) Blanching and freezing is a great way to save them, and taste so much better than factory frozen. Growing your own is a perfect way to keep putting some back as they become ready.

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