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 is 4:23 and shows the entire 13-day 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
Ingredients
- 1½-2 lbs. fresh pole beans (green or wax)
- 1½ quarts/liters filtered water
- 6-8 fresh dill sprigs
- 3-4 garlic cloves (or up to 8 if you REALLY LOVE garlic)
- 3-5 Tbsp. sea salt
- 1 tsp. peppercorns
- ¼ cup pickle brine (from previous batch)
- 1 fruit leaf (grape, cherry, apple, oak, etc.)
Instructions
- Make Brine: Mix 3 Tbsp. sea salt to 1 quart of water. Stir until dissolved.
- Peel garlic cloves.
- Add beans, garlic, dill sprig leaves (remove from stems) in layers into gallon-sized jar or crock.
- Pour brine over vegetables up to 1″ below the top of the vegetables (they will settle).
- Add flexible lid and weight on top of veggies so they are completely submerged.
- Cover with dish or tea towel & secure with twine or 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 5 days. When it has texture and taste you like, move to refrigerator. There they will keep for months (if they last that long!)
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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.
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!