A little late but - Blanching Vegetables

I mentioned in a prior blog entry, that due to my best friend and her husband not being able to make it to our house (for good reason) for dinner I had tons of extra fresh veggies on hand, more than my husband and I would be able to eat before we went on vacation the week following. Coming home to veggies going bad is really not my idea of fun. Neither is wasting money on good food. I am the queen of freezing foods - I can't stand letting anything go to waste!

When I was a kid, my father used to blanch excess vegetables from his garden - most often zucchini and green beans. I used to tease him for it, but suddenly I was seeing the wisdom of his ways - an easy way to safely preserve vegetables in the freezer. I had to give it a try. But what is the best way to do it? My mom and I used to complain that my dad's vegetables seemed so watery when they came out of the freezer. I did a search online to make sure that didn't happen to me when I gave it a go.

I found this site, which gives great instructions as well as varying methods depending on the type of vegetable you blaching. I higly recommend checking it out. The night I undertook this as my project I blanched cauliflower, zucchini, and broccoli. I am happy to report I have used most of the vegetables by now except the broccoli (I've only used some of it) and all have survived their trip to the freezer and into our stomachs. The blanching really helps preserve the taste, I did not notice a difference really between the blanched veggies and how a fresh veggie would taste. I am glad to have added this method to my bag of tricks, especially since it often seems some of the vegetables I buy end up not getting used. This is a perfect way to save those vegetables for a later time.