Just got back from the allotment with two full buckets of Broad Beans. Obviously I won’t use that many Broad Beans at once so I need to store them, so I thought I’d share with you how to freeze Broad Beans.
How To Freeze Broad Beans
There are many different schools of thought and techniques for keeping Broad beans,from drying them bottling them but for me the most convenient way is to freeze them. This leads us to our first choice, whether to blanche them or not.
Blanching is the term used to describe the process of par-boiling the Beans before freezing them. In my experience it all depends on how long you wish to keep them in the freezer. If you only have a few and you will be using them quite quickly just pod them and place them in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer. If however you have a considerable amount and you want to be able to eat your own broad beans in December then it’s advisable to blanche them. So assuming that you wish to blanche your broad beans…..
How To Blanche Broad Beans
Step One
So as I mentioned I have two full buckets of Broad Beans, so, the first thing to do is to pod them. This is not a difficult process, just snap the end of the bean and run your thumb along the inside this will release the beans. I catch mine in an oven tray as it is big enough to collect all the beans (including the ones that seem to jump as far from the pod as they can).
Step Two
Rinse the Broad Beans in a colander and place into a saucepan of boiling water. Boil the beans for no longer than two minutes. Remember we are not trying to cook the beans just kill any bacteria that is likely to rot the beans in storage.
Step Three
Now drain the beans in a colander and plunge them immediately into a bowl of cold water. I use a washing up bowl as I have found that this gives me enough room to fill with a lot of cold water. The colder the better, I put ice cubes into the water and it’s surprising just how quickly it melts.
Step Four
Once the beans have cooled down sufficiently,(this usually takes about ten to twelve minutes) drain them and place them on a tea towel or similar and cover the beans with another tea towel. Gently pat them dry.
Step Five
Once the broad beans are dry, place as many as you will need for one portion(this will vary depending on the size of your family and how much you like broad beans) into a freezer bag. Gently squeeze the air from the bag and seal it.
Step Six
Place the sealed freezer bag containing your broad beans into the freezer and leave. That’s really all there is to it. When you wish to eat broad beans just take a bag from the freezer and boil for about five minutes then enjoy.
If you don’t want to blanche your broad beans but still want to freeze them click here for info.
The Main Questions I Get Asked About Freezing Broad Beans
The short answer is yes you can most definitely freeze broad beans. The process is easy to do and can be seen above.
All of the images above were taken in my kitchen at home. So my answer to this is follow the above instructions.
The easiest way to freeze broad beans is by just podding them and putting them in the freezer, and this works but they won’t store long term. For long term storage they need blanching.
I am based in the UK and the method above is how I freeze broad beans-in the UK-at home.
Yes you can, I have another post on how to freeze broad beans without blanching that shows just how to do that.
Over To You…
I have found that my best yielding variety to date is Aquadulce. Which varieties have you had the most successful yield with? Leave a comment in the box below!
Thanks for the details included in this helpful information…I always wondered why blanching was necessary. I love getting familiar with my fava beans! So delicious, healthy and versitile!
Hi Kerry, thanks for taking the time to comment. I forget that Broad beans have another name in the USA, Fava beans sounds better than broad beans I think. 🙂
Can you freeze broad beans which you have double padded?
Hi Cynthia,
I’m guessing you meant double podded and if you did the answer is yes you can freeze double podded broad beans. Thanks for taking the time too read my post and to comment.
Guess you meant to nip it too! Predictive testing us a pain X
Haha, yeah you’re right it is a pain.
You don’t mention peeling the beans after blanching? Is peeling really necessary, as most recipes claim? If so, can peeling be done when thawing after being frozen, and is it easier to do than if peeled before frozen? It’s tedious, I would love to skip this step!
Hi Jan
I don’t think peeling is necessary, Apart from the pod that keeps the beans all together I have never peeled broad beans either to eat or to freeze so to be honest I would have to say … yes you can skip that step. 🙂 I hope this helps and thanks for taking the time to read my post and to comment.
Thanks for the info about blanching which I am doing today, I have kept the bags from my shop bought frozen peas and I am using them to freeze the broad beans in. They are useful as they are resealable and also mean I don’t have to use anymore plastic.
Hi Carol,
Thanks for that great tip, there’s too much single use plastic being used nowdays and that’s a great way to cut down on it. Thanks for taking the time to comment and I’m pleased my page was helpful.:-)
I freeze broad beans without blanching and place them in a Tupperware container rather than to keep using plastic bags I dont think they really need blanching if like me they get used up within 6 mths at most.
Thanks for sharing the tip about using the tupperware container, it’s much better for the environment to not use single use plastics. I have another post on how to breeze broad beans without blanching if you’re interested click the link. https://growing-guides.co.uk/how-to-freeze-broad-beans-without-blanching/ Thanks for taking the time to comment.
i shall be starting to freeze broad beans this weekend and have found your way of freezing very helpful and would like to know how you freeze other vegetables like runner and french beans if possible thanks
Hi Brian thanks for taking the time to read my post, and comment. I have a couple of posts concerning freezing runner beans, if I add the link here for how to freeze runner beans without blanching, there’s a link in that post to freezing runner beans with blanching.
https://growing-guides.co.uk/how-to-freeze-runner-beans-without-blanching/
I hope this is helpful.
All the best
Steve
Thanks for the freezing advice, I certainly do need it.
This was my first attempt at growing vegetables and I planted 40 Aquadulce last October and another 40 in March of this year. The over wintered ones did really well and I was able to nip the tops off when they reached 4.5 feet tall in April. Unfortunately the spring sown ones did not grow tall enough to be topped before blackfly arrived.
In future I will stick to October sowing of Aquadulce.
Hi David,
I usually sow mine in October, this year I got ahead of myself and sowed them in September, they were productive, but I did worry about how the early flowers would’ve got on if we’d had much in the way of bad weather.
Fortunately I got away with it and they are now all in my freezer.
Well done for growing 80 Aquadulce, I expect you have plenty of beans.🙂
October sowing certainly seems best here in the UK.
Thanks for taking the time to comment, and read my post.
All the best
Steve
Hi Steve,
Do you know if it is worth trying to use some of this year’s bean for sowing? If so is there any tips regarding preparing them. The seed beans I bought just looked like they had dried out and gone brown and hard.
Regards
David
Yes David it’s always good to save seeds. But one thing to remember if they’ve been open pollinated they might not grow true to type.
That said, it’s interesting to see what you get.
I have a post on seed saving runner beans, but the same principles apply to all beans and peas.
Here’s the link. https://growing-guides.co.uk/save-seeds-runner-beans/
I hope this helps, and please let me know how you get on.
All the best
Steve