To blanche or not to blanche?

I don't blanch, just slice them really fine with a bean slicer, stick 'em in a poly bag and straight in the freezer!

I've tried blanching them but they just don't taste right to me once they've been blanched.

This is very helpful, as my mum's just given me a huge bag of runner beans! I'm eating some tonight with toad in the hole, but I can't eat them all at once. I've blanched RBs before, boil 2 mins and immerse in iced water, but will try freezeing from raw.

Hiya, to reply to your questions:-

No, I don't defrost them to cook them, just chuck em in a pan of boiling water and cook as normal

As to how long I keep them, well, don't know about Delia and the enzymes thing......last week I used some of last YEAR's frozen beans that and been lurking in a dark corner of the freezer!

TBH, I didn't serve them up as a veg, I actually used them to "pad out" some mince, so can't really report on the flavour, BUT, I would say I usually keep them up to about 3 month they are fine to serve just as a veg, after that, I would tend to use them "in" something else like a casserole or a chilli or something like that.

The one word of warning I would give, though, is it really seems to make a difference that they are sliced finely. One time, in the absence of my trusty bean slicer, I just cut them into diamond shaped pieces, about half an inch long and froze them.......they didn't keep half as long or taste anything like as nice - maybe thats the time I should have blanched them!

I used to grow and freeze our own peas & I never blanched them,just shell, bag and bung in the freezer give the bag a shake from time to time so they don't go into a frozen solid lump and they'll be absolutely fine