Blanching veggies before roasting
Cut down on cooking time and get better results.
Roasted asparagus with feta is a favorite. So is roasted cauliflower, which I sometimes use over a bed of sauteed chard to make a pizza.
Sometimes I’ve burned vegetables when roasting them until they were tender. Blanching veggies before roasting them allows them to caramelize a bit without burning.
So, try this — enjoy the bounty.
Ingredients
- Any vegetable you’d like to roast (asparagus, Brussels sprouts, green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, or many others)
- Olive oil
- Black pepper
Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. To a large pot, add water and salt until the water fills half the pot and it tastes barely salty. Bring it to a boil over high heat.
3. Add your vegetable to the boiling water. Leave in the boiling water for about 2 minutes. They are still blanching even if the water hasn’t come back to a full boil. (If you plan to use blanching as your only cooking method, you can bite the veggies periodically until crunchy-tender, scoop them into a bath of ice water to stop the cooking, drain, and serve.)
4. Drain the veggies, toss them with a little olive oil, and lay them out on a baking sheet. It’s important not to crowd them.
5. Roast the veggies until tender and beginning to caramelize. Add some freshly ground pepper and serve.