Like many people in small households, I never know how many fruits and vegetables to buy. Sure, I could shop every day as the Europeans do, but I don’t have the time.
If I don’t buy vegetables, I won’t eat them. But, too often, when I do buy them, I miscalculate and end up with more than I can eat before they go bad.
The last time I was getting ready to go on vacation, I looked sadly at two small bags of broccoli florets and a big bag of fresh green beans, wondering which of my neighbors would like them.
Then I saw instructions on the broccoli: To freeze, blanch first. You can freeze fresh broccoli?
I’ve been cooking for 40 years, but I’ve always lived in the city and gotten most of my produce from a store. I had never known you could freeze fresh vegetables if you cooked them briefly in boiling water first. People who grew up with big gardens probably always knew that.
After doing an Internet search to figure out just exactly what “blanch” meant, I decided to interpret it as “cook in boiling water until it’s not completely done.” Without a lot of time to spare, I cooked up the beans and broccoli in separate pans of boiling water, stuck them in plastic bags and went off on my trip.
When I came back two weeks later, I had, essentially, frozen vegetables similar to those you buy in the store. So I cooked them the same way, throwing them into a little water, bringing it to a boil and them simmering until they were done.
I won’t say they tasted as good as fresh, but they were as good as commercially frozen vegetables. And they didn’t go to waste.
If you want precise instructions, you can check out a University of Florida extension instruction sheet, with links to a table about how long to blanch each vegetable.
