Why blanch vegetables before freezing

If you want to get the perfect frozen vegetables, bright, flavorful and crispy, you will have to blanch them before you send in the freezer. Blanching not only helps the products to retain appearance, but also helps further protect them from damage.

Which gives the blanching

Vegetables frozen without prior blanching, it is edible, but much to lose in flavor and aroma. Their texture after defrosting, much softer, and the color and the smell is not so intense. This is due to the fact that the enzymes leading to the acceleration of all reactions are responsible, in particular, and for the process of decay. Freezing slows down action of enzymes but does not stop their activity, but the thermal treatment, even a brief, almost completely neutralizes them. The blanching also removes pathogens and pesticides from the surface of vegetables.

Before freezing not blanch the peppers, corn, onions and tomatoes.

How to blanch vegetables

Ideal for blanching suitable special cookware, which consists of deep pans, special mesh strainer and lid. If you do not have such a useful device, take an ordinary saucepan with a lid and suitable to the size of the colander. For each kilogram of vegetables you will need 2 liters of boiling water. Vegetables are blanched in small batches, pre-cleaned and washed them and not mixing different types. Large vegetables, such as carrots, cauliflower, pumpkin cut into small pieces. From the leafy greens and remove tough stems. They put them in a colander and place over boiling water, cover with a lid and steamed. The processing time depends on the type and size of vegetables. Steamed foods should be immediately put in ice water to stop the cooking process. To do this in cold water place the ice or change it very often. Chilled vegetables, dried using a linen or paper kitchen towels and then they are ready for freezing.

Mark the packages of frozen vegetables because even pre-processed, they still have an expiration date.

Sturdy vegetables, such as beans, slices of pumpkin, kohlrabi can be processed not the steam, and placed in boiling water, then drain the water or to get the products with the help of skimmers. It is important not to omit the next batch in the water, until the liquid again boils.

Water for blanching, lightly season with salt.

Legumes such as green beans, peas in the shell, okra blanch 2 to 4 minutes. Cabbage parsed into florets such as broccoli or cauliflower, processed to 2 minutes. Less than a minute blanch tender Kocheshkov kohlrabi, leafy vegetables, split peas.