I love going to a produce store and seeing bins of fresh vegetables like snow peas, snap peas, mushrooms, and green beans up for grabs. You can buy as many or as little as you need, and you can hand-pick them to be uniform. It’s the closest experience to going to a farm and picking them yourself. A beginner home cook may be intimidated by those bins and pass them right buy. Give this method a try. Blanching is a simple cooking technique that involves a large pot of boiling water with salt and mixing bowl with ice water. Boil and shock. It only takes 10 minutes. Blanching par cooks vegetables and lock in a beautiful bright color. Add them to a vegetable platter for an unexpected surprise. Store in the refrigerator and add blanched beans to salads or give them a quick saute and serve them with dinner.
Blanched Green Beans
1 or more lbs of Green Beans, trimmed stem end
2 quarts of water
1/2 cup kosher salt
1 quart of cool water with ice
Bring 2 quarts of salted water to a boil. While waiting for the water to boil trim off the stem end and leave the other end intact. Note: if the beans are not young and fresh they may also have a string down the flat side that you may need to remove as you are trimming. This extra step motivates me to make sure the beans are farm fresh.
2) Make sure you have your ice water ready to go and then add the green beans to the boiling water. Set your timer for three minutes.
3) Drain the beans in colander or use a large slotted spoon to get the beans in the ice water.
4) Drain and spread out on paper towel to pat dry. Store in glass container with paper towel.
Blanching vegetables has become an important part of my weekly meal prep routine. I can use the same batch of salted water to blanch several vegetables, cool them in an ice bath, pat them dry and keep them stored in the refrigerator to add to salads or give them a quick saute for dinner.
Blanched Green Beans
Ingredients
- 1 or more lbs of Green Beans, trimmed stem end
- 2 quarts of water
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 1 quart of cool water with ice
Directions
- Step 1 1) Bring 2 quarts of salted water to a boil. While waiting for the water to boil trim off the stem end and leave the other end intact. Note: if the beans are not young and fresh they may also have a string down the flat side that you may need to remove as you are trimming. This extra step motivates me to make sure the beans are farm fresh.
- Step 2 2) Make sure you have your ice water ready to go and then add the green beans to the boiling water. Set your timer for three minutes.
- Step 3 3) Drain the beans in colander or use a large slotted spoon to get the beans in the ice water.
- Step 4 4) Drain and spread out on paper towel to pat dry. Store in glass container with paper towel.
