Blanching Green Beans

Pick green beans. Wash then cut off both ends. Cut beans up into 1 inch pieces. Boil water in a large pot (I use my pasta pot with insert). Put beans into boiling water for 3 minutes. Remove from boiling water and place into very cold or ice water for at least 3 minutes (this stops the blanching process from continuing). I then spread the cooled beans in a thin layer on a tea towel which is spread on top of a cookie sheet. I freeze the beans this way first and then put them into a freezer Ziploc bag. This way the beans do not freeze into a clump. You can skip the first freezing phase and place the cooled beans into bags and freeze in the bags, the beans may freeze into clumps and be a little more difficult later to use in small portions.

Blanching Peas

First pick and shell peas. Boil water in a large pot. I use my pasta pot with insert and it works very well. Put peas in boiling water for 90 seconds. Remove peas (this is where the pasta pot insert comes in very handy!) and place in very cold water or ice water. Peas need to be in the cold water for at least 90 seconds to stop the blanching process. I then spread my peas in a thin layer on a clean tea towel that is on top of a cookie sheet. I place the peas on the cookie sheet in the freezer until the peas are frozen. Then I put the peas in a freezer ziploc bag. You could skip the freezing phase on the cookie sheet and place the cooled peas into a bag but then I find that they will freeze into a clump. My way keeps them frozen but loose in the bag and easier to use later.