How to blanch vegetables

Learning how to blanch vegetables is useful for every cook: blanched vegetables can be served with your favourite dips as party food, or frozen in preparation for cooking a Sunday roast. Blanching works for almost any vegetable but is particularly suited to carrots, cauliflower, green beans, and sugar snap peas.

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How to blanch vegetables

Method:

1. Prepare an ice bath: you can do this either by partially defrosting ice from your freezer, or adding ice cubes to a bowl of cold water from the tap.

2. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and season generously with salt.

3. Prepare your vegetables: peel carrots and trim cauliflower, green beans, and any other veggies that need to be cut up into smaller pieces.

4. Now, add the harder vegetables (e.g. carrots and cauliflower) to the boiling water. Boil for approximately three minutes. Then add the tender greens like sugar snap peas and boil for a further minute. 

5. Take the vegetables out of the boiling water with a slotted spoon and submerge them in the ice bath. Wait for them to completely cool, then drain and pat dry with a paper towel. Your blanched veggies are ready for serving or freezing. 

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