Choose your cooking style - blanch

Blanching is a quick heating and cooling cooking method. It is often used when people want to keep the crunchiness of vegetables and will usually brighten the colour.

This cooking method can be popular for salads or platters that need crunchy bright vegetables for dipping. This is also a good technique to use before freezing vegetables as it helps to maintain flavour and texture, and minimises the nutrients that are destroyed when cooking.  

How to:

Place the vegetables into boiling hot water for  no longer than 2-3minutes., Remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon and put them straight into icy cold water (or at least under running cold water) until the vegetables are completely cool. (this helps to stop the cooking process).

Vegetables best for blanching include:

• carrot
• broccoli
• green beans
• peas
• asparagus