It’s so easy to freeze your home grown peas and beans to use all year round. So, if you have a glut, or even if you’ve bought a large amount of fresh peas and beans, here’s how to deal with them.

Wash and shell your peas.

Begin by first washing and then shelling your peas, don’t freeze any that are not perfect. It’s best to begin this process as soon as you pick your peas to make sure that you freeze them when their flavour is at it’s best.

Peas ready for blanching.

Once you have shelled all your peas, you need to prepare a pan of boiling water and a bowl with ice water in it. Put the peas into the boiling water and blanch for no longer than two minutes. Drain the peas and immediately transfer into the bowl of ice water. This cools them quickly and stops them from cooking any further. You should leave them in the ice water for a further two minutes.

Bag the peas for freezing.

Drain the peas again and put them in sealable or zip lock freezer bags. Don’t be tempted to over fill the bags, they will freeze better if they can be spread out flat in the freezer with the peas separated. If possible, use the quick freeze function on your freezer, the faster they are frozen, the better they will taste when they are cooked. Once they are completely frozen, they no longer need to lay flat and can be stored in your freezer as normal, ready for use throughout the year, as tasty as the day they were picked!