Pickled garlic dill beans are one of the simplest recipes to get you started on the path to fermentation. Use any kind of pole beans you like.
Think of them as a “gateway ferment” to the wide world of fermented foods. Mwu-aahahahahahaha! 🙂
Video shows the entire process, with updated progress every few days, as well as tips on keeping your ferment clean along the way!
Garlic Dilly Beans
Prep time
Fermentation time
Garlic dill beans are one of the simplest recipes to get you started on the path to fermentation.
Author: Fermenters Club
Recipe type: Fermented vegetable
Yield: 2 liters/quarts
Ingredients
- 2 to 2½ lbs. (1kg) fresh pole beans (green or wax)
- 1 quarts/liters filtered water
- 6-8 fresh dill sprigs
- 6-10 garlic cloves
- 3-5 Tablespoons/45-75 ml sea salt
- 1 Tablespoon/15 ml peppercorns
- ¼ cup /60 ml pickle brine (from previous batch)
- 2 fresh fruit leaves (grape, cherry, apple, oak, etc.)
Instructions
- Make Brine: Mix 3 Tbsp./45 ml sea salt into 1 quart/liter of water. Stir until dissolved.
- Peel garlic cloves.
- Add beans, garlic, peppercorns, fruit leaves (which keep veggies crisp by adding tannins to the brine), and dill sprigs in layers into a large (e.g. half-gallon or larger) jar or crock. If using a jar with shoulders (a non-wide mouth variety), pack as many beans as you can snugly fit into the jar. Your "Tetris" skills will be tested.
- If you are not tightly packing a jar with shoulders, you'll need a way to keep the beans submerged under the brine. Add a flexible lid and a weight on top of the veggies so they will stay submerged.
- Pour brine into the container. Add the lid and weight first, then top off with brine. Leave at least 1 inch of space from the top of the container.
- Cover with a dish or tea towel, and secure with twine or a rubber band.
- Put in coolest part of house or kitchen.
- Check every few days. Scrape, spoon or wipe out any mold that forms on top.
- Taste a bean starting after 7 days (5 in the heat of summer). When it has texture and taste you like, clean the top once more, then move to the refrigerator, where they will keep for up to 3 months.
Would it be bad to add vinegar to the green beans ? I am new to fermenting and have basic questions. Thanks for the help !
Just curious- Why do you want to add vinegar? It’s not necessary to start the natural fermentation.
Is natural fermentation the same as pickling ? I was thinking of the vinegar taste .
All ferments are pickles, but not all pickles are fermented! Here’s a good article about the differences! Fermentation vs. Pickling
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Thanks Austin! My blanched green beans are fermenting beautiful, but will now also try a batch with not cooking them first. I did a bit more research, and having studied nutrition in Holland, that is what we learned that the protein Phasin is not digestible and can give digestive problems, it seems it is very rare, maybe the fermentation does brake it down in the end.
So we will eat and enjoy them!
Can you clarify for me why some recipes tell me to cook the green beans for 5 minutes and others, like yours, don’t. I was taught not to eat raw beans.
They say the toxin phasin needs to be decomposed by heating, and lacto- fermentation does not do that.
Hi Pauline,
I haven’t heard about not eating raw beans. Most recipes probably call for “blanching” them mostly to bring out the green color. We wouldn’t blanch beans because it would kill the good bacteria present on them.
There are lots of benefits to fermenting vegetables, including adding enzymes, vitamins and good bacteria. Not sure if it also neutralizes the chemical you’re talking about.