Dilly Green Beans | HealthyMammas

Dilly Beans…I promise you can’t stop at one!

June 10, 2011 by Melissa

One thing that our family could not live without…our organic veggie garden out back! Well, we might be able to live without it…but, we’d definitely spend a lot more money on produce throughout the year! Plus, I don’t know why…but, homegrown veggies simply taste SOOO MUCH better than store bought veggies! Maybe it’s because you know that nothing has touched them except the soil you’ve prepared, water that you’ve given them, and glorious sunshine!

We consume most of what we grow, but at times, we have more than we can consume so we try to can as much as possible. This allows us to have certain veggies during the year even when they are not in season. My absolute favorite canning recipe is our Dilly Bean recipe! It’s adapted from The Busy Person’s Guide to Preserving Food. These little bits of yumminess are impossible to resist…once I open a jar, I literally can not stop munching on them. Every single person that we have ever served them to loves them and most request (and receive) jars as future gifts.

Dilly Beans

Author: Melissa

The key to really delicious dilly beans is to use young (thin) green beans, and always use fresh dill. We use dill from our garden and we pick the beans before they get very big so they are really tender. We like ours spicy and very flavorful but if you’d like a milder version you can cut the garlic to 1 clove per jar and the dill to 1 head per jar. This recipe makes (4) pint-size jars.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups white vinegar
2 1/2 cups water
1/4 canning or kosher salt
2 lbs fresh green beans, trimmed
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (1/4 tsp per jar)
8 cloves garlic (2 per jar)
8 heads of fresh dill (2 per jar)

Instructions

Place green beans in an ice bath until you’re ready to fill your jars. This will produce a crisper dilly bean.
Preheat hot tap water in canner. Prepare lids. Sterilize (4) pint-size canning jars.
In a medium saucepan, mix vinegar, water, salt. Heat to boiling.
Pack the green beans into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Pack them upright and as tight as possible…squeeze them in there!
To each jar add 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 heads of dill. Pour hot vinegar mixture over beans leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
Put lids on jars and tighten (but don’t screw the lids too tight)
Put filled jars in preheated canner. Make sure that water level in canner is an inch or so above the jars. Process for 5 minutes once water has returned to a boil.
Cool jars, check seals, label, and store for at least 2-3 weeks before opening/serving.

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