Recipes: Pickled Green Beans
Making Pickled Green Beans
Our family loves green beans. Fresh garden green beans are so tasty too! We always planted a lot of green beans whenever we had a garden. We typically had several varieties of beans from foot long beans to different types of green beans to purple beans and more.
Whenever we had extra green beans we would look for a variety of ways to store, eat, and enjoy them. I recently came across our Pickled Green Bean recipe. Since it is Spring I thought it would be a good time to share it. These pickled green beans are crunchy and tasty!
Pickled Green Beans Recipe:
- 2 pounds fresh Green Beans (rinsed)
- 2 1/2 cups White Distilled Vinegar
- 2 1/2 cups Water
- 1/4 cup Salt
- 4 Garlic Cloves (peeled)
- 1 large bunch fresh Dill Weed
- 2 teaspoons Mustard Seeds
- 1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
- 6 Jars (1/2 pint each) with Rings and Lids
1. Locate your jars and sterilize them.
2. Trim both ends off the rinsed fresh green beans. Make sure the green beans fit into your jars if not cut them in half.
3. In a large saucepan put the vinegar, water, and salt. Bring the mixture into a rolling boil over high heat.
4. In each jar place 1 garlic clove, 1 sprig of dill, 1/8 teaspoon of Red Pepper Flakes, and 1/4 teaspoon of Mustard Seeds.
5. Pack the green beans into the jars, standing them up vertically.
6. Ladle boiling mixture into the jars until it is 1/4 inch from the top.
7. Put the lids on the jars and allow the jars and contents to cool to room temperature before placing them into the refrigerator. Let the pickles ferment for 2 to 3 weeks before eating the pickled green beans.
Makes 6 pint sized jars of Pickled Green Beans.
Green Beans being pickled
Everything added now need to put on the lids!
Jars ready to be stored for later treats!
How to Keep Fresh Garden Vegetables Separate & Accessible in a Refrigerator Drawer
Refrigerator drawer full of fresh garden vegetables
We love it when our vegetable drawer is crammed full of fresh garden vegetables! The problem is at times it can be difficult finding the vegetable you want in the middle of all the other goodies in the drawer. Now that Spring is here and people are planting gardens, going to farmers markets, and stocking up on some of the great fresh produce in the stores I thought it would be a good time to share how I have found an easy and inexpensive way to keep the garden vegetables separate yet accessible while in the refrigerator drawer.
Solution – recycled bread bags! It seems silly but it really works well! You probably already have them around plus you can usually fit more bags into the drawer. We tried doing containers but every week we had a different amount of vegetables or they were overflowing among other things that just didn’t make them work well. As I was throwing out a bread bag the thought came across my mind that it would make a good “holder” for the garden vegetables.
The bags can be packed as little or as much as needed (and can be adjusted accordingly) plus they keep the vegetables separate so I can easily reach in and grab whatever veggies I needed at the time. It also made it super easy for the kids to pack their own lunches or to grab a quick snack from the vegetable drawer.
Here’s how we did it:
French bread loaf bag, washed & dried so it can be filled with cherry tomatoes from the garden
Once the tomatoes are all in the bag roll the remaining bag down until it is even with the stack of tomatoes
Bag of tomatoes ready to be put into the fridge drawer
Fresh veggies organized and accessible for the next meal
Fresh & Healthy: Our Garden – Beans, Tomatoes, Peas, Zucchini, and Squash!
Vegetables in our new beach bucket ready to be delivered to friends in Charleston!
Items that were picked this week:
- Purple Beans
- Green Beans
- Snow Peas
- Red Cherry Tomatoes
- Orange Cherry Tomatoes
- Zucchini
- Summer Squash
We took some vegetables with us to Charleston last week to share with friends. It was fun being able to bring fresh vegetables with us now that our garden is starting to take off and produce more. What are you eating out of your garden this week?
Recipe: Veggie Beef Soup
We made this soup recently when friends came over. I was trying to use up some fresh vegetables that we had in our refrigerator and came up with this recipe. It was super easy and tasted delicious. We have been trying out a variety of different soup recipes during the cooler winter months. All of us have enjoyed the leftovers too! The items that we put in the Veggie Beef Soup were ones we had on hand. Feel free to add more or substitute with the veggies that you have in your refrigerator. Today is a snowy day in SC so we are loving the warm meals. The kids have been in and out playing in the snow today.Veggie Beef Soup
- 1 pound Beef Stew Meat
- 1 cup potatoes (cut into 1/2 inch)
- 1 cup carrots (cut into 1/4 inch pieces)
- 1 can stewed Tomatoes
- 1 can Beef Broth
- 1 cup frozen Green Beans
- 1/2 cup Snap Peas
- 1/2 cup Onion (chopped)
- 1 tablespoon of McCormick Grill Mates 25% Less Sodium Montreal Steak
Put all ingredients in the crock pot turn it on low and cook for 6 to 8 hours. If you want a slightly thicker soup you can add a tablespoon of sifted flour.
