Freezing Runner Beans help please,

Can I put sliced beans straight into the freezer or do they have to be blanched.
If so do you blanch them {for how long} then do you plunge them into cold water ? & do you need to dry them somehow {roll in tea towel}. Thanks

I have done both - blanched and not blanched and I pulled them out to use the other day and the blanched ones were a lot nicer in colour than the unblanched.
I jsut boil them up for about 2 minutes and then put them into a bowl of cold water draining it a couple of times when it warms up and then drain them when cool in a colander and then bag and freeze.

I do a ton every year, and have done for around 30 years. I have my Mum's old freezing tips book here. You need to blanch them to retain the colour, and the nutrients. Its very easy. I tip the ends, slice (we have one of those neat old bean slicers that clamps to the end of the table) then put into boiling water. Use a large pot and make sure the water is boiling before you put the beans it. Bring back to the boil and boil 1 minute (some people say 2 which is fine as well). Take off the heat and drain in the sink in a colander and immediate run under the cold tap. I then fill the sink with cold water so the beans are properly cold, i. e. stop the cooking process. Then you just drain. I leave mine in the collander over a pot for about an hour and then I pop onto old clean meat trays or oven trays and freeze. As soon as they are frozen I put them in zip lock bags and they stay free flow, ready for Winter. You will find that any veges you blanch have a lovely, bright colour and taste really good.

Thank you for the quick replies they are much appreciated, I think I will blanch them first to keep colour etc.
I just had a brainwave on how to do them, I have a big pasta pot with a steamer inner{like a giant colander}.
So will put them in it, blanch, lift it out & put it into cold water then drain without having to transfer them in the progress.
Thanks again for the help.

Blanching stops enzymes. Partly. Really flash freezing is the only thing that does, but we home freezers can't do that.
I've found it doesn't affect my dwarf beans much at all.
Cauli and corn on the other hand do need it to stop them going a bit weird.

I used to spend loads of time blanching beans but no more. Pick, wash, dry, slice (one of those old fashioned cube-type cutters now available from Stevens) free flow into containers and freeze. The secret to retain colour and goodies is to bring water to boil and then add beans, quick burst to how you like them and that's it. Having done this for some years now (200 plus pkts last year) it works for us. Same with jam... dont bottle all of it simply freeze some in ice cream containers or the like and take out what you need at a time. Works for us and too easy. Cheers.