Sometimes I think we don’t blanch enough. Shortly scalding your vegetables in boiling water and then plunging them into ice-cold water, not only preserves texture and color but also avoids depleting those greenies of their nutrients. So why don’t we do it more often?
And it’s not only green vegetables that can be blanched. You can blanch all sorts of nuts, such as almonds, you can blanch root veggies and fruits. This is the best way to completely integrate their true flavors AND textures into your dishes.
5 recipes showing that you should blanch more often
1. Crunchy Nile Perch With Green Beans
For a light and healthy meal, pick up some fish fillets – Nile perch will do nicely -, cover them with a tasty mayo, lime, and onion mixture and bake them. Then blanch some green beans before cooking them in butter. Pretty easy to make, don’t you think?
2. Basbousa (Semolina Cake)
Basbousa is a well-known Middle Eastern sweet cake, that has quite a few variations, depending on the country. Traditionally it is made with semolina, and it is also flavored with rose water or orange blossom water. We’ve also added some of our favorite ingredients to the recipe, including pistachios, coconut, and vanilla. Blanched, not stirred.
3. Grilled Pork Neck With Peas and Carrots
The big secret to adding extra-flavor to your grilled meat is to marinate it. This is exactly what we did with this pork neck. Feel free to browse the ingredient list and see what we marinated the steaks in. If you feel like there is an Asian touch to it, then you’re right. As for the side dish, you guessed it right: it was blanched.
4. Pan-Fried Smoked Trout With Brussels Sprouts and Creamy Sauce
Roll up your sleeves for the next 45 or so minutes. After cleaning the fish, we’ll smoke it using a baking pot, some sawdust, and the kitchen blowtorch. Then we’re going to do some pan-searing and frying, not to mention the blanching. We’ll be left with delicious and aromatic tender trout fillets. And Brussels sprouts. Serve them with a creamy buttery sauce spiked with lime. It’s totally worth the effort.
5. Green Bean and Rice Noodle Salad
