Pickled Green Beans (Dilly Beans)

Last Updated September 6th, 2023 at 05:12 pm by Lisa

Pickled Green Beans are sometimes called Dilly Beans. This is a quick pickle recipe, and requires no canning! Jazz up relish trays, and charcuterie boards, eat as a great snack, pop them into Bloody Marys, or toss green bean pickles chopped onto salads.

This crisp crunchy dilly bean recipe will keep for up to 1 month chilled in the fridge if they last that long...

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PRO TIP: Refrigerator pickles are fast to make with this quick pickling recipe method. Since they are not processed in a canner, they must be stored in the fridge.

Pickled Green Beans Recipe

There is nothing easier than a no canning recipe! And pickled beans are an easy recipe to enjoy up your green bean harvest.

These are simply fresh green beans pickled in a vinegar-based brine and seasoned with black or color peppercorns, either fresh dill or seeds, and other spices.

Next time you are at farmers markets or grocery stores, pick up a bag of fresh whole beans to make homemade pickles. This is a wonderful way to preserve a bumper crop of green beans you grew in your garden. This recipe can be scaled down to make a small batch in a single jar.

Green Bean Pickle Ingredients

• clean quart jar lid, ring (a short or tall jar works)
• whole green beans or yellow wax beans
• garlic cloves (1-2 cloves of garlic per jar)
• chili peppers fresh or dry (1 per jar)
• fresh dill (2-3 sprigs per jar)
• mixed color or black peppercorns (1 teaspoon peppercorns/jar)
• red chili flakes (¼ teaspoon/jar)
• coriander seeds (½ teaspoon/jar)

Pickling Liquid Brine Ingredients

• distilled white vinegar
• water
• sea salt - kosher salt 

PRO TIP: One pound of fresh green beans will fit in a Quart jar (4 cups). Cut the stem ends off with clean kitchen scissors, and you can cut the to fil in smaller jars.

Let's Pickle Refrigerator Dilly Beans

First, wash your Mason jars or canning jars with hot soapy water or in the dishwasher. You can use either quart or pint glass jars for spicy pickled green beans.

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Make The Pickling Liquid

1. In a pot or large saucepan on the stove, combine vinegar, water, peppercorns, red pepper flakes, coriander, and salt.
2. Turn the heat to medium-high and bring the hot vinegar mixture to a boil, dissolving the salt.

Assemble The Jars

1. In the bottom of the jar, place: garlic clove, hot chili pepper cut in half, and sprigs of dill.
2. Trim ends of the beans with a clean pair of kitchen scissors. Pack the beans into the jars so they are standing on their ends. The best way to load the beans in the jars is to lay the glass jar on its side to fit them all inside. Depending on the size of your beans, you can make pints and cut the beans shorter to fit your pint jars.
3. Cool the boiling brine to room temperature. Note: High heat hot liquid will cook the crisp pickled green beans so they won't be bright green and crunchy.
4. Pour or ladle the room temperature mixture into the jars. Fill to within ½ inch of the top of the jar rims. Place lids and bands on jars. Place jars in the refrigerator and eat within a month!

How To Eat Pickled Green Beans

Dilly Beans are also known as "Silly Beans" are back in high style thanks to their use in cocktails such as Caesars and Bloody Marys.

A Caesar cocktail is consumed primarily in Canada. It has vodka, a Caesar mix, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce, served on ice with a salt-rimmed glass, and a garnish of celery and lime wedge. 

You can also enjoy them as a snack, chopped in salads, and are a perfect addition to charcuterie boards and antipasto platters!

Try these in a Bloody Mary, you will be very glad you did. This homemade Bloody Mary mix is so fresh and delicious! It has tons of fresh vegetables like peppers and fresh tomatoes...

Swaps, Variations, and Best Flavor Additions

Kinds of Vinegar: Apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, or rice vinegar will all work in this recipe.

Spice Variations: Add in a teaspoon of dill seeds or mustard seed, all work. For some additional heat in this great recipe, add in a pinch of cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes.

Bean Varieties: Use up your wax yellow beans or snap green bean bounty for pickling with some other basic ingredients.

Peppers: Try to add different hot peppers depending on the heat level you prefer. Jalapenos, habaneros, and cayenne peppers all are great options.

Garlic: You can add more cloves of garlic if you wish, either small cloves or even minced garlic is fine. Slice the cloves of garlic into smaller pieces to up the flavor of the brine.

Salt: Table salt, pickling salt, and kosher sea salt can all be used in pickling. Table salt does work in a pinch. However iodized salt has iodine and tends to discolor the pickling liquid and jar contents.

Herbs: Try fresh dill, dill seed, flower heads of dill plants, aka dill heads. All are usable for pickling, canning, and cooking dishes to add flavor.

Quick Pickled Green Beans Top Tips

• Crisp Beans: To keep your finished pickle crisp and crunchy, only add cooled pickling brine to your jars of beans. Or you will have a hard time keeping them bright green and crisp.
• Flavors: Add additional flavors you prefer, more garlic, more chilis if you like spicy dilly beans.
• Sweetness: Some people prefer sweet pickles. If you like them sweet, simply add some sugar to the hot brine while boiling it for a sweeter result.
• Chilled: Always keep these chilled in the fridge, the beans below the liquid, and eat within a month.
• Canning Note: This recipe is for quick refrigerator pickles only. To make shelf-stable pickles using a water bath canner or a pressure canner method, please consult a complete guide to canning like the Ball blue book for best results. It gives you all the recipes, and resources and is an excellent guide to processing your pickles in a boiling water bath and with canner processing times all with the safety guidelines.

Green Bean Pickling FAQ

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