Blanching vegetables is usually done with boiling water, is done for several reasons, and in different ways. Never slice or chop veggies before blanching keep them whole. If you try to blanch chopped vegetables, you will poach them, not blanch them, and there is a big difference.

Blanching before freezing is one reason to blanch. Add salt to boiling water to raise the temperature, and don't over cook the veggies. You just want to seal the outsides to keep the flavors and nutrients as fresh as possible while frozen. One minute for delicate vegetables, like peas, is long enough in boiling water. Tougher veggies, like corn, take two to three minutes. Any longer and the color and freshness drop quickly. Even one minute can change the texture and color, so if you are only storing them for a week or two, don't blanch at all. After removing the veggies from the boiling water, douse them quickly into cool water to stop the cooking process, or they will turn mushy and continue to lose their color as they hold the heat.

When I was a child, many, many years ago, we blanched everything before freezing it for the winter. Later, as an adult, I had a huge veggie garden and blanching took so much time, I tried freezing corn without blanching it. As I learned that blanching wasn't as necessary as my parents insisted it was, I quit blanching things like corn, completely. We harvested the corn in the shucks and threw them into bags and into the freezer, silk and all. It saved a lot of time during the harvesting season, and the corn was like fresh corn when we used it later. The husks and silk were soft and easy to remove, but the corn was firm and bright yellow, still.

Tomatoes were thrown into bags and frozen whole, also. They lost their firmness and weren't good on salads, but for tomato sauce, salsa, and chili, they were great, tasting like fresh picked. Squash still needed to be blanched, I learned the hard way.

Blanching can be used to remove the skin, also. Instead of blanching, I often roast the skins to remove them. Roasting peppers makes the skins easy to remove, and gives them more flavor. Freezing tomatoes makes the skins come off easily, by the way.

Another way to "blanch" is to flash fry veggies in hot oil instead of hot water. I call it oil blanching, since it resembles blanching more than frying. In a deep fryer, lower green beans into the hot oil for thirty seconds, drain, and put into freezer bags and freeze unitl winter. Put the bag, with a small opening in the zip seal, into a microwave oven at high for three minutes. They will taste and look like fresh beans from the garden when you serve them. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over them and some coarse salt and your friends will be amazed. I promise.

Learn more about this author, Will Kester.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about How and why to blanch vegetables?
We want to hear your view. Write now!