Blanching Vegetables

Ever boil your veggies and they come out weird colored - i.e. broccoli becomes brown?  Or you just don't want to use store bought frozen veggies in your food?  Well, don't let that happen to you ever again by blanching your own veggies!


Ingredients/Tools Needed:

• 2-3 tbsp salt (adjust according to how much vegetables you're cooking)
• Vegetables you'd like to cook
• Water
• Large pot
• Ice water in a bowl large enough to hold all of the vegetables and water

Directions:

1. Bring large pot of water to a boil
2. As the water is boiling, fill a large bowl with cold water and ice - enough water and ice to cover all of the veggies you're blanching
3. Boil veggies for as long as they are barely cooked through but still tender.  Approximately 1-3 minutes for broccoli florets and longer if your veggies are bigger and vice versa.  If you want to test doneness, take a piece out of the boiling water and submerge it into the ice water bath and then eat it.  Boil veggies in batches if you have to - the point here is that you cannot stop the water from boiling by adding too much.
4. As soon as the vegetables are cooked, quickly remove them from the boiling water either with a slotted spoon or pouring the veggies into a strainer.  Immediately place vegetables into the ice water bath and ensure they're submerged into the water.
5. As soon as the vegetables have cooled through, you can remove them from the ice bath.
6. Now you have vegetables ready to freeze and reheat when you need them without having to cook them again.  Eat and enjoy!

Broccoli that has been blanched!  Great green color!!