How To Use Freeze-Dried Green Beans

People have asked me how to use freeze-dried green beans and other fruits and vegetables for their meal planning. Today, I’ll show you how to start by opening the can. You may laugh, but sometimes people fear opening the box or the can. What do I do next? Using freeze-dried foods may seem overwhelming, but it’s not, trust me, my friends. Let’s do it!

Of course, a good can opener helps, that’s for sure. Can Openers, Commercial Can Openers, and Electric Can Openers.

How To Use Freeze-Dried Green Beans

I decided to start with freeze-dried green beans first, they are great for side dishes, and of course, meals like the green bean casserole, recipe below. If they were dehydrated green beans you have to rehydrate them longer and cook them longer because they’re processed differently than freeze-dried foods. Most freeze-dried foods you can eat directly out of the can.

Dehydrated food must be cooked, usually in soups and stews. They’re great options for food storage because they are much cheaper, but they don’t taste as good as freeze-dried foods, from my experience.

Freeze-Dried Green Beans Opening Cans

I’m using a #10 can today of freeze-dried green beans from Thrive Life. They use factory packaging in cans that are six inches in diameter and seven inches tall. Now this particular can is fairly full, not all cans are full, depending on the food item and the brand. I’ll only use part of the can and store the rest in mason quart jars to help keep them fresh. I use this awesome funnel to fill my jars. Canning Funnel (perfect for regular or wide-mouth jars).

Remove The Oxygen Absorber And Toss It

In case you weren’t aware when you open a can, you should discard the oxygen absorber, it’s no longer needed.

Freeze-Dried Green Beans Filling Jars

Now, if I am going to have green beans for dinner in the next month I use wide-mouth screw-on lids for unused dry freeze-dried green beans in the can. I can’t get these white ones anymore but the black ones are leak-proof and can be used for soups as well to store in the fridge. Ball Black Leak Proof Lids.

Freeze-Dried Green Beans With DicoRain

You have a couple of choices to save the uncooked freeze-dried green beans. You may remember, Ray told us about the DicoRain, it is fabulous! DicoRain Vacuum Saver (you’ll use the wide mouth or regular mouth canning lids and rings with this unit).

Freeze-Dried Green Beans Covered In Water

Please soak your freeze-dried green beans according to your brand. According to my Thrive Life can, it says, soak the green beans for 5-7 minutes. I actually soaked them for ten minutes because I got sidetracked. That’s how I roll, sometimes, LOL!

Freeze-Dried Green Beans Draining In Colander

Drain them in a colander and cook them until you reach your desired doneness. I use this microwave cooker, I love it. Microwave Steamer/Drainer. I have the Pampered Chef one but this looks similar. I think I cooked mine for six minutes, I checked for doneness and drained the excess water.

Freeze Dried Green Bean Casserole Ingredients

This recipe is one of our family’s favorites. It only needs your cooked green beans, one can of cream of mushroom soup, pepper, milk, and a six-ounce package of French’s® French Fried Onions as shown in the picture.

Freeze Dried Green Beans Cooked

Combine the milk with the pepper.

Green Bean Casserole Mixing Ingredients

Add the cooked green beans and 1/2 of the French’s® French Fried Onions. Stir until mixed through. Set the other 1/2 of the onions aside for later.

Green Bean Casserole In The Pan

Preheat the oven to (350°F) = (176°C). Grease a casserole pan and scoop the mixture into the pan. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes.

Green Bean Casserole Ready To Bake

After 25 minutes, pull the casserole out of the oven. Add the rest of the French’s® French Fried Onions and bake another 10 minutes, or until lightly browned and cooked through.

Green Bean Casserole Recipe

Freeze-Dried Food

Let me explain what freeze-dried food is in a nutshell. The first step to freeze-dried food begins with freezing. The second step is the frozen food is placed in a vacuum chamber under low heat. Then the third step starts when the frozen water crystals evaporate directly from ice to vapor which is a process called sublimation.

What’s really nice about freeze-dried food is the fact that it lasts longer, depending on the manufacturer. Please always look at the cans and see the shelf-life that’s listed on the label. You can eat the food directly out of the can and therefore it uses a whole lot less fuel if any when it comes to meal preparation.

Freeze-dried foods usually have an open shelf-life of 1-2 years. Here again, please look at the #10 can or on the website of the said company. The freeze-drying process doesn’t require any preservatives, maintains the level or vitamins and minerals for the daily nutrition values needed, and the flavors stay the same.

Pros: Lasts 20-25 years, depending on the company where you purchase the food. You can also eat the food directly out of the can. You don’t need to slice, chop, or cut the food into bite-size pieces. Great for emergency preparedness long-term storage, no food waste, hassle-free food prep,

Cons: It is more expensive, but remember you use less fuel and prep time.

The Best Green Bean Casserole

Final Word

I hope my small tutorial on how to use freeze-dried green beans encourages you to try and use your long-term food storage now. Practice makes perfect, right? Mark and I have been using more of our food storage for meal prep since we moved into our new home. It’s great to go down our hall, pick out what we want for the day, and plan meals accordingly without a trip to the store. Stay safe, stay healthy. May God Bless this world, Linda