The tradition of storing fresh peas and beans by drying it under the sun was common until the invention of refrigeration. Mostly stored plain that has a shelf life of 2 weeks under refrigeration or is blanched and then frozen with a shelf life of up to 3 months.
Here I’ll share few tips on how to store or preserve fresh peas and beans.
Traditional
Method of Drying Beans & Peas:
The traditional method was to leave the beans in pods on the plant for as long as possible. When the pods become brittle, the beans were shelled and stored. Being reliant on the weather, the traditional method of drying beans was pretty hit and miss. Improperly dried beans would often develop molds and fungus making it unfit for consumption.
Freeze drying method:
If the fresh beans aren’t
blanched or steamed the enzymes present in it will cause them to loose
color, flavor and rot even though frozen. Enzymes are catalysts meaning they
speed up chemical reactions and are responsible for ripening, if left it rots
the whole lot. So we need to ‘turn off’ these guys to ensure the frozen peas and beans stays as fresh as possible.
Enzymes are deactivated by
high temperatures so we drop the fresh beans very briefly in boiling water/ steam and
then cool them quickly to stop the cooking. Use any of the following methods to
freeze the seasonal fresh peas and beans:
Method 1:
Bring a pan of water to a rolling
boil making sure you have enough water to cover the beans you want to blanch.
Different beans require different blanching times due to their size. Under
blanching is actually worse than not blanching at all as it stimulates the
enzymes rather than knocking them out. Over do it and you loose vitamins and
colors. Here’s a rough guide of blanching time for common beans and peas below:
Double beans – 3 mins.
Butter beans– 3 mins.
Hyacinth beans- 2 mins.
Green peas – 1.5 mins.
Pigeon peas- 2 mins.
Cow peas- 1.5 mins
Shelf life: 3 weeks to
7 weeks
Method 2:
Soak the beans for a
minimum of 4-5 hours and steam the beans well.
The beans should be evenly spread and steamed. The steaming time for some common fresh beans and peas to be frozen are:
Double beans – 5 mins.
Butter beans– 4 mins.
Hyacinth beans- 3.5 mins.
Green peas – 3 mins.
Pigeon peas- 3 mins.
Cow peas- 1.5 mins
Shelf life: 3 weeks to 10 weeks
Be it any flash freezing method, dry
the beans over a cotton cloth or in an oven at its lowest setting.
If immersing in cold
water after blanching to stop the cooking, dry the peas well by spreading over
a cotton cloth.
After the beans are
pat dry, sprinkle a pinch of baking soda or corn flour, that act as
preservative and control the growth of food-borne pathogens.
After drying, place the beans in a reusable zip lock pouch, remove the air and vacuum freeze the pouch.
Please note that fresh
beans that are half cooked and dried in this manner are not suitable for
sprouting as the heat kills the germ.
Method 3:
Complete drying of the
fresh beans- similarly after soaking the fresh beans for 3 hours, place them under
the sun for 2 days or until it’s nice dry. Oven can also be used at its lowest
temperature.
Shelf life: up to 2 months
Other methods like
storing with brine, canning is also available. But for household purposes these
seem to be too much of work and also consumes lot of space.
Storing fresh peas and beans up to 3 months is perfectly fine.
Regards,
MJ
Thank you so much. It is super helpful 🙏
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