Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 288 kcal | 82 kcal |
| Protein | 16.7 g | 4.7 g |
| Fat | 0.9 g | 0.3 g |
| saturated | 0.3 g | 0.1 g |
| Carbohydrate | 38 g | 10.8 g |
| sugars | 30.6 g | 8.7 g |
| Fibre | 25.1 g | 7.1 g |
| Sodium | 56 mg | 16 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 2.7 kg fresh Green Beans
Instructions
- Snap a raw bean before committing the batch. If it bends instead of breaking it is old, and an old bean dries to something stringy however you treat it.
- Top and tail them and leave them whole, or cut them into lengths if your trays are small. Cutting is only about fitting them in — a whole bean dries perfectly well.
- Blanch them in salted boiling water for two to three minutes. That brief cook stops the enzyme that turns stored beans khaki and flat-tasting, and it is the step people skip and regret half a year later.
- Drop them straight into iced water and leave them until they are cold through. Residual heat keeps cooking them, and an over-blanched bean goes limp on the tray.
- Dry them on a towel and roll them so no water sits in the seam. Surface water is simply time the machine spends before it starts on the bean itself.
- Spread them out without stacking and shake the tray to break up the pile. Beans are round and will roll into a heap in one corner if you let them.
- Dry at 52 °C for 9 hours. A finished bean snaps in half with a click and shows a dry pale interior; one that bends, or looks glassy at the break, needs longer.
- Cool them, jar them, and watch the glass for a week. Condensation inside the lid means the whole jar goes back on the trays, and beans are notorious for hiding a damp core under a dry skin.
- Stored properly they last a year, or grind the dry beans to powder for stock. The powder is the better use of any batch that came out over-dry and shattering.
