Cooking Lesson: How To Blanch Vegetables
I can’t stand wastage of food. I also love a bargain. I found a great way of combining the two….the reduced counter! I’ve discovered if I time it right (about half an hour before closing on a sunday) then I can get great discounted fruit and veg. However, I don’t want to use it all there and then so I need a way of storing it. This is where blanching comes in. Below are instructions and a table of times required. I’ve also added some books of interest at the end.
Equipment and Ingredients:
- Saucepan
- Ice Bath (Bowl of cold water and ice)
- Plate or worktop saver covered with a paper towel
- Chopping Board
- Knife
- Slotted Spoon or Blanching Spoon
- Vegetables!
- Salt (optional)
Method:
- Put plate or worktop saver covered in paper towel ready
- Get ice bath ready
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil
- Prepare your vegetables. Chop them into the same size pieces. This will make sure they blanch evenly
- If you wish to add a couple of tablespoons of salt to the pan then do so now. This will preserve the colour and improve the flavour but it is optional. I choose not to do it because I don’t use salt with vegetables anyway.
- Keep the pan on a high heat and add handfuls of vegetables one at a time. This will keep the pan boiling.
- Each vegetable takes a different amount of time to blanch so I suggest only doing one kind of vegetable at a time.
- See table below for times per vegetable
- When the time is up, remove the vegetables using the slotted spoon and plunge them into the ice bath. You need to move quickly for this.
- This stops the cooking process.
- When they are cool, remove them from the ice bath and dry on the paper towel.
- Bag, label and freeze.
- Asparagus: 2-4 minutes
- Aubergines: 4 minutes
- Brussels sprouts: 3-4 minutes
- Broccoli: 3-4 minutes
- Cabbage (shredded): 1 ½ minutes
- Carrots: 3-5 minutes
- Cauliflower: 3 minutes
- Celery: 3 minutes
- Courgettes: 1 minute
- French Beans: 2-3 minutes
- Mangetout: 2-3 minutes
- Marrow: 3 minutes
- Onions: 2 minutes
- Parsnip: 2 minutes
- Peas: 1-2 minutes
- Peppers: 3 minutes
- Sweetcorn: 4-8 minutes
- Turnips: 2 ½ minutes
- Food Preservation & Storage at Home – A Step by Step Guide to Canning, Pickling, Dehydrating, Freezing & Safely Storing Food for Later Use
- How to Freeze Fresh Food at Home: Everything You Need to Know About Freezing and Freezer
- Home Freezing Handbook (The Basic Basics)
Do you have anything to add with regards to blanching? If so, please comment below. I’d love to hear from you. 🙂