Broad beans - freezing

[Headfry]

Hi folks, a quick question please,

Can I freeze 'shelled' broad beans?

I podded them, blanched them and noticed they were really easy to slip out of their sometime bitter outer shells, all bright green and lovely- is it ok to freeze them like this?

Many thanks
HF

[chris]

I did last year, I thought that was normal!

[Two_Sheds]

I find they don't last long in the freezer, they go black after a few months.

[Alison]

I've not found they go black but the ones I found about Easter time which were from last year were rather tough - still looked good though

[roitelet]

Still eating last years! Podded them and blanched them for 3 mins and they are fine.

[bazzaboy]

Was going to start a new thread but will add to this one as related... Freezing broad beans seems incredibly labour intensive (compared to mangetout, french, runner or even peas) particularly if you have to squidge each individual bean to remove the shell. Are there any shortcuts (other than going to Tesco?)

[binley100]

I pick mine small before the skins have had chance to get tough then just pop em in a container in the freezer ........chuck 'em into boiling water for 3 mins . Sometimes I think blanching them makes them tough and then they get overcooked .

[bazzaboy]

Thanks Binley, I did sort of do that accidently because you get some large and some small and I got impatient with the small ones and just blanched briefly and froze... whether usable or not I'll find out later. If you go to all the trouble of squidging etc it's a very delicate taste and hardly needs any cooking at all, nearly raw al dente (given my trendy lottie neighbour has now taught me never to cook mangetout but to chop up raw in salads). Slightly alarming the mountain of plants, buckets-full of pods, bowls full of squidged skins etc all for a relatively little heap of Ultimate Beans! I hope the worms likes bean pods!

[PAULW]

I never blanche any veg, just pod wash and put in bags and freeze and have never had a problem with them going black and thetaste is fine.

[Alison]

I never blanche any veg, just pod wash and put in bags and freeze and have never had a problem with them going black and thetaste is fine.

Same here.