While making soups or some yummy casseroles and baked goods, the common veggies that we include are the dried green beans. They not only provide an excellent flavor to the food but the green beans are also quite healthy and nutritious too. But can you dehydrate green beans without blanching?
It is true that blanching is essential for some foods as it helps in retaining the natural color of the food. But to know whether green beans required blanching or not before drying, you have to read the below article carefully. Besides telling you the answer in detail, we will also provide you some useful info about the blanching that makes you more clarity in your thoughts.
What is blanching and why it is essential for vegetables?
Blanching is a procedure in which the vegetables are steamed or boiled for a short time until they become partially cooked. It required before dehydrating or freezing various vegetables comprising leafy greens, broccoli, string beans, asparagus, and okra. It is quite easy and fast, and above all, it will create a big difference in your dehydrated beans.
Veggies that you dehydrate without blanching are safe to consume, but they will not retain their original colors, flavors, and textures. After drying vegetables when you store them in the container, they will become darkened, and their quality will also decline after some time without blanching.
The main benefit of blanching is that it breaks the enzymatic action which deteriorates vegetables. Such enzymes may subsist after drying procedure and carry on the decaying procedure despite the fact the food is dehydrated. Pre-treating the veggies in steam or boiling water destroys the enzymes. All types of vegetables do not need blanching before the drying process.
Does blanching essential before dehydrating green beans?
Blanching is not essential before dehydrating the green beans, but it only helps in preserving the natural color and flavor of the food in a much better way. You can dehydrate the beans without blanching too. If the green beans are not blanched then, they will turn dark as soon as you dry them. So, it is entirely your choice whether you want blanching or not.
For blanching, you only need a large size pot filled with water and boil it. Include the green beans in the water and leave it aside for around 3 minutes. Now drain the beans in a strainer and instantly transfer it to a pot of cold water to stop them from cooking more. Again leave the beans for 3 minutes in the cold water and do the draining process again. Don’t forget that during blanching you will require 1 gallon of water for each pound of green beans.
Now, if you want to dehydrate the green beans without blanching then, don’t worry much. They will be fine to consume, but the beans might not last for a long time. They may also lack in flavor, texture, and color.
Some of you might skip the blanching due to the shortage of time or some hectic schedule. So, in such case, you can opt for some other method to make the dehydrating procedure of the green beans faster. As you know that the green beans have tough skin so you can roll them among the fingers to spoil the veggies’ surface a bit and make it softer. Through this method, the food dehydrator machine would not have any issue to take out the entire water content from the green beans.
Benefits of blanching the green beans
Let us tell you some benefits of blanching the green beans before drying to get good results:
- Retain Taste and Colour
Blanching green beans stop the development of a few reactions of natural enzymatic. It washes off the dirt, bacteria, mold as well as other organisms from the food’s surface. Submerging the green beans inside the boiling water or steam for a small time preserves their quality and benefits in protecting the vitamins and color of the vegetable.
- Benefit in Dehydrating Procedure
In few vegetables like green beans the skin is quite tough that can make it difficult for the dehydrator to drag out the entire moisture through it. The process of blanching will aid in breaking the skin of the green beans that will help in making the drying procedure stress-free. It will ease soft tissue of the veggies so its parts might dehydrate quicker.
- Extended Shelf Life
Even though the dehydrated green beans are quite nutritious and healthy, but at times the enzymes can persist the drying procedure. So, with blanching not only enzymes get inactivated, but it also decreases the load of microbes along with the improvement in texture, color and protein stability. You may also add the calcium at the time of blanching to enhance the shelf life and texture of the green beans if required.
Final thought!
The process of blanching is a vital step before dehydrating the green beans so that they have good flavor, texture, color and longer shelf life. It is the easiest way of pre-treating green beans. During this procedure, numerous spoilage microorganisms get killed. It also slows down the activity of the enzyme, reduces the dehydrating as well as rehydration times and helps in retaining the color.
But you can also dehydrate the green beans without blanching also. It is entirely your choice. It is not an essential step for dehydrating food. You only get a high quality dried green beans with better color and shelf life after blanching procedure. While blanching the green beans, follow the recommended time always as over blanching can finish the vegetable nutrients.
We hope that after reading the above detail info, now you know the answer to the question “can you dehydrate green beans without blanching or not.” Do you follow or skip the step of blanching while drying green beans at your home? What was the result of drying green beans without blanching?
Please share with us your experiences with us in the below comment box. Don’t forget to share this article to all those who want to know the answer to the topic of the article.
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References
https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/blanching.html
https://www.thespruceeats.com/blanch-and-freeze-green-beans-1327653
http://foodstorageandsurvival.com/dehydrating-green-beans/
Hi Linda: Thank you for this wonderful article and I learned a lot. I had dried various beans without any blanching. I’ve heard that dried beans tasted wondeful but the cooked beans never tasted tender for me even after soaking for a long time prior to cooking. The worst part is that they made our stomach uncomfortable. The reason was probably that the enzymes made the beans tougher during storage and thus harder to digest. Or do you have a better theory? I guess I will do the blanching this year before drying. Dried eggplant (without blanching) tasted much better relative to the dried beans. What other vegetables need to be blanched before dehydration?
Thanks for sharing your views.
I recommend you go through the Below post for more information.
Dehydrating Time & Temperature Guide: Fruits, Vegetables, Meat, Herbs, Spices & Leather
How to Pre-treat Your Food Before You Dehydrate