These refrigerator pickled green beans are an easy way to preserve some of your garden fresh beans. These delicious dilly beans are a great alternative to pickled cukes!
Be sure to try making these fermented cauliflower pickles for something a little bit different.
Pickling is one of the easiest ways to preserve some of your garden bounty, whether you’re processing your pickles to be shelf stable or just whipping up a batch of refrigerator pickles.
These refrigerator pickled green beans are my new go-to for pickling. They’re easy to make in small batches as beans from the garden ripen.
You can use any variety of green bean for pickling. Whatever you’re growing for the dinner table will also work for making these refrigerator dilly beans. Just plant extra green beans!
If you’re growing several different kinds of green beans, don’t hesitate to combine them here.
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Making refrigerator pickled green beans
This particular recipe makes a small batch of pickled green beans and doesn’t need to be processed in a water bath canner. They’re refrigerator pickles. That means it’s an easy project for those of you who are new to the idea of preserving your garden harvest. These pickles will last for months in the fridge.
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And this is an easy pickle recipe. It took me about half an hour to put up these dilly green beans — faster, even, than a trip to the grocery store!
You can make this recipe with fresh or dried dill, whichever you have available.
Prepping the green beans
Choose fresh green beans that are unblemished. Wash and trim the ends. If you’re using a quart-size jar, you shouldn’t need to cut the beans any shorter. Long beans may need to be trimmed to fit into a pint-size jar.
Filling the jars
If you’re new to pickling and filling jars, worry not. It’s easy. Just tilt the jar as you fill it, to keep the beans pointing in mostly the same direction. This allows you to get more in the jar than just putting them in all catty-wampus.
You can use upcycled glass jars for this recipe, since you won’t be processing the jars full of beans.
Here’s how to make shelf stable pickled green beans, if you’d like to save space in the fridge!
★ Did you make these dilly green beans? Don’t forget to give them a star rating below! ★
Refrigerator Dilly Bean Recipe
Preserve your fresh produce -- make these yummy refrigerator dilly beans. They're easy to make, maintain their crispness, and don't require a water bath process.
Ingredients
- 3 pounds green beans
- 2 tablespoons dried dill weed, (or 1 cup chopped fresh dill if you have it)
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups apple cider or white wine vinegar
- 4 teaspoons granulated organic cane sugar
- 2 tablespoons sea salt
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Fill a large stock pot with about a gallon of water and bring to a boil.
- Meanwhile, wash and trim the ends from beans.
- When the water comes to a boil, drop the beans into the pot and cook 8-10 minutes, until crisp but tender.
- Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water to halt the cooking process.
- Pack beans into glass jars, snug but not too snug (you'll fill 2-3 pint jars, depending on how tightly you pack the beans).
- Divide the dill and garlic between the jars.
- Bring the remaining ingredients to a boil. Using a canning funnel, pour liquid over the beans. Use a butter knife to release any air bubbles. Make sure beans are completely submerged.
- Secure the lid; refrigerate for at least a week before serving.
Notes
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1 gramsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 104Unsaturated Fat: 0gSodium: 167mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 6gSugar: 10gProtein: 4g
More refrigerator pickles to try:
Originally published in July, 2016; this post has been updated.
How long will this recipe last in the fridge?
Many months!
Good job.
Lovely recipe. I am going to make it as soon as I have a glut of them from the allotment.
Thanks for sharing.
I had a lot of kale and beet stems lying around and I didn’t want to waste them so I used your brine recipe and packed three jars of the raw stems, and they turned out so well! I love the flavor. Will definitely be making them again! Thanks!
I never thought of pickling kale stems. This is going to be a must-do this fall. Thanks for the tip.
I just made these and it’s so easy. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
You said any variety of green bean. Does that mean you can’t pickle purple pole beans?
Purple pole beans are fine!
It works fine without the sugar
Yummy and easy to make.
Can I raw pack the beans (without blanching) and pour the boiling brine over my beans in their jars? I have a batch made and all the tops sealed…I wanted them crunchier:)
I’ve tried this, but they ended up really tough.
I am on the autoimmune protocol, specifically to try to re-set my insulin resistance problem. With that protocol, no sugar! Have any advice about using this recipe with an alternate sweetener, like stevia? Would that work?
If it were me, I’d try it without the sugar at all.
What a nice recipe! How long will these stay good to eat?
Because of the vinegar content, they’ll keep pretty indefinitely. Kind of like dill pickles. (Let us know how they turn out!)
I’ve done this using Sandor Katz’s recipe, which looks the same. they’re very good. got here from simple lives thursday.
I am making these now. I was wondering if you know how long they keep in the refrigerator? We are down to a household of 3 and I know I’ll love them, just not sure about the other 2.
Because of the vinegar content, they’ll keep pretty indefinitely. Kind of like dill pickles. (Let us know how they turn out!)
I’ve never had these – they sound really good. When we get an excess here in late summer I’ll try it.
Oh those look gorgeous. And with the garlic and dill – yummy. I love green beans.
These sound so good. I’ve never been a big fan of canning green beans and usually just blanch and freeze them, but this is going to get tested out in my kitchen this year.
Mike, I don’t can green beans, either, because of the low-acid factor. I really like this way of preserving them and have had better luck with these than regular pickles.
Great pix. These sound really good. Alas, our beans are just now coming up. We won’t have any produce for quite some time.
Roxanne, you know where to find the recipe when your beans are ready!