Do you remember those old fashioned "5 Bean Salads?" They are served cold or room temp, they have a slightly 'pickled' taste to them...Well, I was pressure canning green beans and after a full canner load, I had about 2 pounds left over of cleaned and trimmed fresh green beans.  I decided to "pickle" some along with some kidney beans (our favorite) and a few other veggies. You can chose your style of green bean, yellow beans, kidney, garbanzo and limas, they all work nicely.  Once the processed jars set in my pantry for at least a month, I'll drain and mix a little good olive oil into the contents and chill before serving.  Enjoy! Diane

Diane's Two Bean Salad 
Yield: 4-5 pints
Waterbath or Steam Can

Ingredients: 
2 Pounds Green Beans, washed and trimmed
3 stalks of celery, washed and sliced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 large red bell pepper, washed and sliced
2 can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed 
Red pepper flake (optional) 

Brine: 
1 1/2 cups white vinegar, 5% acidity or higher
​1 1/4 cups white sugar 
2 teaspoons mustard seed 
1/2 teaspoon celery seed 
2 teaspoons pickling salt 
3/4 cup of water 

Directions: 
     Clean and cut all your vegetables, set aside.  Make your brine, bring to a boil and stir until all sugar is dissolved.  Reduce to a simmer.  In a separate pot, add all your vegetables & beans along with fresh water and bring just to a boil, reduce heat to medium and let vegetables cook about 5 minutes. You do not want to overcook the vegetable mixture or your softer beans might start breaking down.  When vegetables are done, divide vegetables up between 4-5 clean pint jars to a 1" headspcae. Top each pint with hot brine to a 1/2" headspace. 
Process in a boiling waterbath or atmospheric steam canner 15 minutes, adjusting for your altitude. 

**Kitchen Note:  I had enough vegetables for 4 full pints but, depending on what produce you choose and how large you cut your slices, your jar quantity may differ from mine.  
 

  I'll be honest, we grow our own green beans and carrots and they hardly ever make it into the canner because we love them fresh!! If we want to can them to have an extended supply, I look to my fellow Farmers! There's also nothing wrong with keeping an eye out for great produce that comes into stores. You want to can what you enjoy eating - I prefer to taste the produce first before investing time and materials in canning anything up for my pantry.  If you can tasteless carrots, they will always be tasteless carrots.  Just like making jam, you cannot take a sour or bitter fruit and expect a miracle of sweetness in the end product. 

I prefer to pressure can three vegetables every year: Jade Green Beans, Sweet Carrots and Olathe Sweet Corn. Corn has its own blog post here for those interested in canning corn too. 

NCHFP Green Beans Process 
NCHFP Carrot Process