Dehydrating Green Beans

How to

August 29, 2022

Dehydrating Green Beans

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Dehydrating Green Beans is a relatively simple task. Just like with any kind of canning, you really want to start with freshly picked and tender green beans. Some say that picking beans in the morning will make provide you with a crisper fruit. Yes, that’s right, beans are considered a fruit! I haven’t experienced this personally, but I’m not doubting that people find them to be crisper. I’m sure that in hotter climates (like most of us experienced this summer) that is true. I mean I can imagine, just like the plant itself, that the produce would become increasingly soft as the humidity rises during the day.

Contents

1 When to Harvest
2 Preparing your beans for dehydrating
3 Actual dehydration process
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When to Harvest

Whether you are harvesting pole beans or bush beans, you want to be sure the time is right for picking. For bush beans that’s generally at the 2-4″ length and for pole beans it’s more like 3-7″. The length range may sound large, but different varieties will mature at or within the ranges listed above.

One of the many harvests from my bush beans this year.

Generally, bush beans will be ready to pick before pole beans. However, bush beans don’t produce for as long as pole beans. A vast majority of the bush bean harvest happens within just 2 or 3 weeks. Depending on weather patterns, bush beans can send out a second round of flowers, but they more than likely will not produce as many beans as your first round will. I remove my plants and plant a second round of beans for a fall harvest. I do depend on the weather’s cooperation for this, though. If it’s an unseasonably cold summer’s end/fall beginning then it will probably be a bust. So just kind of use your best judgment on whether or not to plant another round. Also – if temperatures stay steadily above 95℉ pollen is not viable for long. So while you may see tons of flowers, you may be missing your beans. This actually happened to me this year with my pole beans. Tons of flowers that never flushed a bean. Lastly, bush beans, because of their short window of fruiting, are typically the choice for canners.

Preparing your beans for dehydrating

Once you’ve picked the beans snip, cut, or snap the ends off, cut each in half (approx. 1″ pieces), and clean them in cold water. Next, you will want to blanch the green beans for 5 (five) minutes. Believe it or not, this will help the beans to dehydrate quicker. The science says that this process releases some of the juices and stops enzyme action (your new knowledge for the day).

To blanch, you will want to be sure that you plunge the beans into boiling water (not before) and start the clock from the first plunge.

First round (I forgot to cut them in half first)

While your beans are busy blanching, prepare a large bowl of iced water. When the clock runs out on the blanching be sure to strain and plunge directly into the iced water in order to shock the beans. The science on this one is probably obvious, but just in case you’re new to cooking in general, I’ll tell you. Shocking them in iced water will stop the cooking process. Unfortunately, I failed to get a picture of them in the iced water. For that, I apologize.

Actual dehydration process

Ok, so once you’ve completed these steps you’ll want to place the beans on a clean, dry towel (not necessary, but helps to remove further moisture). You will then want to place the beans in the dehydrator trays, but not too close. You want the air to be able to flow through freely.

It’s unbelievable how well this actually works!

Some recipes state that you should dehydrate at 125℉, but I follow my dehydrator guidelines and set it to 135℉ as you can see in the photo below.

Even with the higher recommendation of temperature on my dehydrator, the process still took almost 12 hours.

You can check your bean every couple of hours even though it will likely be 12 hours before they are finished. When checking them, I recommend rotating the trays as well as shuffling the beans around on each tray to ensure even drying. The beans are done when they are crispy. If you remove them too soon and place them in a mason jar as I have done in the photo below, you may find that you will develop mold in your jar.

Keep in mind that times will vary based on moisture left in the beans as well as the kind, brand, age of your dehydrator.

The final stop before rehydrating by adding to a soup.

If you’re wondering how they come out in a soup I can promise you it’s delicious. They don’t get rubbery upon rehydrating….unless you overcook them, but that’s a chef error. Here’s a photo of the soup we made just to test the process. In conclusion, dehydrating green beans can be a great way to winter them over.