Spicy pickled beans

By Carl Heinrich

Prev Recipe Next Recipe

Let us know what you think Please fill out this brief survey to help us understand how we can improve your experience

Yields 3 x 500 millilitre jars.

This recipe uses my standard vinegar pickle brine recipe that is a great go-to for any quick pickle and green beans work perfectly. Wash the beans thoroughly in filtered water before jarring and leave them whole, stems and tips on. You can be as generous as you like with the chilis, add more or less as you prefer. These are still quite crunchy when they are first made but with at least a month of sitting in a dark, cool place they will soften up nicely and have fully absorbed the spicy pickle brine. Using filtered water in the canning pot will ensure that there is no residue on the jars after canning.

SERVES

10 Mins

Ingredients

6 cups green beans, whole
650 millilitres filtered water
350 millilitres white wine vinegar
100 millilitres sugar
25 millilitres kosher salt
6 garlic cloves, peeled
6 pinches chili flakes

Directions

Trim the beans if necessary to make sure that they will fit in the jars you have. It is important that they stay submerged in the pickling liquid.
Combine the water, vinegar, sugar and salt in a pot. Stir and bring to a simmer. While that is coming up, prepare your jars for canning. Place the rack in the canning pot and add enough filtered water to the pot to easily cover the size of jar you are preserving in. Bring the pot to a simmer. Add three tall 500 milliliter glass jars to the water to pasteurize. In a small pot, put the lids and cover with filtered water and bring to a simmer to pasteurize as well. Place a towel on the surface where the jars will land and have the jar lifter, canning funnel, magnetic wand and headspace gauge ready.
Working with one jar at a time, remove a jar from the boiling water using the jar lifters. Drop in two cloves of garlic and a pinch of chili flakes. Add as many green beans as you can into the jar making sure that they don’t surpass a centimeter below the top of the jar. Using a canning funnel, fill with the jars with pickle brine until the first notch on the headspace gauge, about 0.5 centimeters. Wipe the rim with a moist towel, add a lid then screw a ring on finger-tight. Using the jar lifters again, carefully place the jar back in the pot and remove the next one. Repeat until all of the jars are filled and boil with the lid on to pasteurize for five minutes. Remove the lid and carefully remove the jars and place them on the towel again. Gently press the center of the lid to check and make sure the seal has held properly.