If you want the perfect frozen vegetables that are bright, flavorful and crunchy, you will need to blanch them before placing them in the freezer. Blanching not only helps products to maintain their appearance, but also allows them to additionally protect them from spoilage.
What blanching gives
Vegetables, frozen without preliminary blanching, are quite edible, but significantly lose their taste and aroma. Their texture, after defrosting, is much softer, and the color and smell are not so intense. This is due to the fact that enzymes leading to the acceleration of all kinds of reactions are responsible, among other things, for the decay process. Freezing slows down the action of enzymes, but does not stop their activity at all, but heat treatment, even a short one, almost completely neutralizes them. Blanching also removes pathogens and pesticides from the surface of processed vegetables.
Peppers, corn, onions and tomatoes are not blanched before freezing.
How to blanch vegetables
A special dish, which consists of a deep saucepan, a special mesh colander and a lid, is ideal for blanching. If you do not have such a useful device, take an ordinary saucepan with a lid and a colander that matches the size. For every kilogram of vegetables, you will need 2 liters of boiling water. Vegetables are blanched in small batches, having previously peeled and washed, without mixing different types. Large vegetables such as carrots, cauliflower and pumpkin are cut into small pieces. Tough stems are removed from leafy greens. They are placed in a colander and placed over boiling water, covered with a lid and steamed. Processing time depends on the type and size of vegetables. Steamed food should be immediately placed in ice water to stop cooking. To do this, ice is placed in cold water or it is changed very often. Chilled vegetables are dried with linen or paper kitchen towels and then ready to freeze.
Label bags of frozen vegetables because even pre-processed ones will still have an expiration date.
Strong vegetables such as beans, pumpkin pieces, kohlrabi cabbage can be processed not with steam, but placed in boiling water, and then drained or removed with a slotted spoon. It is important not to immerse the next batch in water until the liquid has boiled again.
The blanching water can be slightly salted.
Legumes such as asparagus beans, peas in the shell, okra blanch for 2 to 4 minutes. Broccoli or cauliflower, sorted into florets, are processed for up to 2 minutes. Tender kohlrabi cocks, leafy vegetables, split peas blanch for no longer than a minute.
