Italian Green Beans

I love canned green beans. I’ve always loved them. Even the store bought ones. The first time I made my own my mind was blown. They taste exactly like store bought green beans, but with only 3 ingredients, and no chemicals.

Home canning green beans is more labor intensive than other canning endeavors, but is one of the simplest recipes ever. As with all low acid foods, you need a pressure canner to safely process the green beans for preservation.

Superstition Ranch Market had fresh green beans on sale for $0.69 a pound so I grabbed 5 pounds while we were out today. I brought them home, rinsed them off and started preparing them. I grab a small handful at a time, lay them on the cutting board, and cut a 1/8 of an inch of each end. You only need to cut the stem end, but I slice off both ends because I can clean them quicker by avoiding aligning all the beans the same direction. The I cut the beans in to 1-2″ segments.

Clean, sterilized and prepare you jars. I use the pint sized, and prefer wide mouth for green beans. Fill each jar with green beans. Now you have options. You can go with just water if you need a low sodium diet. You can add a pinch of salt to the beans for a little flavor. Or, my favorite is a pinch of salt, and half a pinch of Thyme and Oregano in each jar. The dried herbs add just a hint of flavor to the beans.

Then you simply use your canning funnel to add boiling water to each jar. Remember to leave your head space. Hand tighten the bands over the lids and process in a pressure canner at 10 lbs for 25 minutes. It’s fine to double stack in a pressure canner. But either offset the cans so they aren’t directly on each other, or use a piece of sheet metal with holes in it to create a 2nd layer.

Let the canner cool, and presto, 10 pints of green beans.

My favorite part of canning is still knowing what’s going in to the jar, what’s not, and knowing what my kids are eating. And speaking of, green beans are the one vegetable my kids gobble up without question, every time.