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Blanching: This Keeps Your Vegetables Crisp

Blanching is a handy trick for processing many types of vegetables and fruits. We’ll show you how your vegetables stay fresh and crunchy for longer.

Benefits of Blanching

Blanching is a simple and very effective technique for processing vegetables and fruit. Typically, you blanch by adding your fresh veggies or fruit to a large pot of boiling, salted water, and shocking them in cold ice water at the end of the cooking time. In the case of numerous fresh vegetables, a process is set in motion which, depending on the variety, inhibits toxins, releases important nutrients or makes the vegetables last longer.

Due to the short time in boiling water, your fresh vegetables do not lose their taste and remain crisp and fresh. It is often advisable to blanch vegetables before freezing them. In this way, it withstands the cold temperatures better and cooks more quickly when processed later.

Blanching vegetables sets important processes in motion:
It deactivates certain enzymes and thus stops unwanted changes in the fresh product. (such as progressive maturation and the associated changes in taste)
It preserves valuable ingredients such as vitamins and minerals.
It allows vegetables to retain their fresh color.
It makes many types of vegetables last longer and prepares them for freezing.
It draws out toxins and harmful germs.
It softens inedible flavors and substances that are difficult to digest (e.g. some types of cabbage).
It cooks sensitive vegetables ready to eat (e.g. leaf spinach or chard).
Blanching is also suitable for some types of fruit and nuts: Almonds, peaches or tomatoes, for example, can be skinned more easily after a short time in the bubbling cooking water and processed into mush or sauce, for example.

Blanching – that’s how it works

You can blanch in no time at all. It is only important that you take into account the individual cooking time depending on the variety.

For blanching you need:
a large pot full of water
Salt
Skimmer or sieve for chilling
That’s how it’s done:
Bring the water in your pot to a boil. Carefully add some salt, making sure the water doesn’t overflow.
Add your vegetables or fruit to the boiling water and let it simmer according to the cooking time.
Lift it out with the slotted spoon or drain into a large colander.
Pour cold water over your vegetables or fruit to stop the cooking process immediately. It’s even easier to have a second pot of ice water ready to dump your blanched veggies into after cooking time.
Wait for the vegetables to cool.

Blanch – note individual cooking times

Depending on the variety, you have to wait a certain amount of time for blanching. Our overview will help you. The times are for one 500 gram serving in a large saucepan.

Artichokes: 6 minutes
Beans: 3-4 minutes
Cauliflower: 3 minutes
Carrots: 2 minutes
Peppers: 2 minutes
Brussels sprouts: 3 minutes
Peas: 2 minutes
Corn on the cob: 5 minutes
Spinach: 1/2 – 1 minute
Apples: 2 minutes
Pears: 2 minutes
Blanching cabbage simplifies the preparation. The leaves, which are often brittle, become softer with a short boil and are then easier to roll.

Chinese cabbage (leaves): 2 minutes
Chard: 1-2 minutes
Leek: 3 minutes
Pointed cabbage leaves: 2 minutes
White cabbage leaves: 2 minutes
Savoy cabbage leaves: 2 minutes
To make raw vegetables more digestible – for example in a salad – you can also blanch them. Just add the following types of vegetables to the boiling water for a short time before you eat them al dente or freeze them for later.

Broccoli: 3 minutes
Kohlrabi: 3 minutes
Celery: 5 minutes
Zucchini: 3 minutes
Sugar snap peas: 2 minutes

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Cooking Tips

Preparing Aubergines: The Purple Vegetables are so Diverse

Whether braised, grilled or gratinated: You can prepare aubergines in a wide variety of ways.

Preparing eggplants: the basics

You can cook aubergines in a variety of ways, but you cannot eat them raw. Like other nightshade plants, aubergines contain small amounts of the neurotoxin solanine. If you eat large amounts of raw eggplant, you can get gastrointestinal problems, among other things. Since the solanine content decreases as the eggplant ripens, you should only use ripe fruit if possible. They also taste less bitter.

Before preparing your eggplants, you should wash them well and cut off the ends. Many recipes then recommend chopping the aubergines, sprinkling them with salt and letting them soak for 30 minutes. There are two arguments for this:
The salt extracts the bitter substances from the aubergines.
The salt extracts the liquid from the aubergines and ensures that they then absorb less fat.
However, modern breeds hardly contain any bitter substances. For this reason, you don’t necessarily have to let the aubergines soak in the water. However, if you don’t steep the water, you’ll need a little more oil for the eggplants, and they’ll take longer to soften.

If you decide to steep the water, remember to drain the salt from the eggplants, drain the excess water, and pat the eggplants dry afterwards.

Ideas for preparing eggplant

Since aubergines have relatively little taste of their own, you should always season them well. Mediterranean herbs, garlic, ginger or curry go wonderfully with aubergines. Oil, for example olive oil, is an additional flavor carrier.

Here are some ideas on how to prepare eggplant:
You can grill aubergines: cut them into slices, brush them with oil, season them with salt and pepper and grill them on both sides. Alternatively, you can place the aubergine slices on a greased tray and bake in the oven at 180 degrees with the grill function for about 30 minutes (turn them halfway through) until they are soft. Garlic, lemon juice, herbs and a fresh yoghurt sauce go well with it. Or you let the vegetables cool down and put them in – then you get delicious antipasti.
You can also use the grilled or baked aubergines to make an aubergine cream.
Braised together with peppers, tomatoes and zucchini, eggplant makes a delicious ratatouille. You can eat this with potatoes, rice or bread or use it as a filling for a delicious vegetarian lasagna or quiche.
Another classic oven dish is moussaka. In the original, the Greek aubergine casserole is prepared with meat, but it tastes just as good vegetarian or vegan.

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Cooking Tips

Glazing: This is How You Make Vegetables Shine

Glazing gives not only cakes, but also vegetables a beautiful shine. We’ll show you different methods you can use to glaze vegetables.

Glazing, pouring over, glazing: These terms describe how you can make vegetables shine by covering them with a glaze. Originally, “glaze” comes from the French word “glacer” which means “to coat with a icing”.

In principle, you can glaze any vegetable – but mild and slightly sweet vegetables such as root vegetables, onions or snow peas taste particularly delicious. You can also glaze peas very well. The best time to do so is when the first vegetables are harvested in spring: Young, tender vegetables are prepared in a particularly tasty way with a glaze. It tastes best when you buy fresh organic vegetables at the market or even harvest them in your own garden.

Vegetables are usually glazed with a mixture of butter and sugar, and vegetable broth is often added. What you glaze your vegetables with will depend, among other things, on whether you precook them or not. Below you will find tips for both variants.

Glaze vegetables with pre-cooking

If you want to cook vegetables and then glaze them, they should still be al dente after cooking. Therefore, you should only blanch it for a few minutes until it goes into the pan with the butter and sugar.

How to glaze vegetables with pre-cooking:
Wash the vegetables of your choice, peel them if necessary and cut them into sticks, depending on the variety. You can also leave young carrots whole.
Heat a large amount of salted water in a saucepan and cook the vegetables for a few minutes until tender but still al dente.
Remove the vegetables from the pot and rinse them in cold water to stop them from cooking and to keep their color.
In a large skillet or saucepan, melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter for every pound of vegetables. Dissolve a tablespoon of sugar in it and let it caramelize a bit.
Add the pre-cooked vegetables to the butter-sugar mixture and toss until they are shiny all over.
Depending on how much flavor the vegetables have and what you want to use them for, you may not need to season them at all. Otherwise you can season the glazed vegetables with pepper, coarse sea salt, a little lemon juice and fresh herbs, for example.

Tip: You can add some vegetable stock or white wine to the butter-sugar mixture and let the mixture simmer for a few minutes before adding the vegetables.

Glaze vegetables without pre-cooking

Glazing raw vegetables means you need more liquid—you want the vegetables to cook in their glaze, after all. For example, vegetable broth or a mixture of broth and white wine are well suited. How to glaze vegetables without pre-cooking:
Wash the vegetables, peel them if necessary and cut them into sticks, depending on the variety.
Melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter per pound of vegetables in a saucepan or large skillet. Add about a tablespoon of sugar and let it caramelize a bit.
Add the vegetables to the pan and toss them for a minute or two. Then pour in about 250 milliliters of liquid (vegetable stock and possibly white wine).
Let the vegetables simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes, until they are tender and the liquid has evaporated.
Season the vegetables with a little salt and pepper and, if necessary, with fresh herbs.

Glazing vegetables: tips for variation

Although butter and sugar are the classic ingredients for glazing vegetables, you can substitute other ingredients for them. Here are some tips:
If you want to prepare a vegan dish with glazed vegetables, you can use oil or vegan margarine instead of butter. Which oil you use depends entirely on the dish you want to prepare. However, tasteless oils that do not mask the fine aroma of the vegetables are best suited.
You can replace the sugar with a sugar substitute such as honey, agave syrup, or maple syrup. Many vegetables are also delicious if you glaze them in a mixture of butter and orange juice.
Shallots or other onions are especially tasty if you add red wine and a dash of balsamic vinegar to the glaze instead of vegetable broth and white wine.

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Food

Fruits and Vegetables: That’s The Difference

Sometimes it’s not so easy to tell the difference between fruit and vegetables. Vegetables go in the salad and fruit on the cake? Read here where the real differences are.

In everyday life, we are usually pretty sure whether we have fruit or vegetables on our plate.

Our sense of taste determines that fruit such as pears or grapes tend to be sweet to sour and vegetables tend to be savory, such as peppers and tomatoes.
Cooking habit says: Vegetables often end up cooked on the plate, while fruit is a crunchy raw food snack.
But: There is no generally valid difference between fruit and vegetables. For example, botanists use a different definition than traders. Depending on the context, different definitions are useful.

For botanists, fruit comes from a fertilized flower, like an apple or a pear. Vegetables consist of other parts of a plant, such as the leaves of spinach or the stalk of asparagus. According to this definition, rhubarb would be a vegetable, while tomatoes would be a fruit.
According to a common definition, fruit grows on perennial plants, while vegetables belong to annual plants. When it comes to tomatoes, it becomes clear that the definitions are not congruent: tomatoes – a fruit for botanists – grow on annual plants and are considered vegetables according to this definition. Asparagus is perennial and would therefore be a fruit.
Why several definitions can make sense is explained when you consider when you need a definition: If you want to prepare a refreshing fruit salad, raw edible and sweet to sour ingredients make sense and are considered fruit for you in this situation. Whether these originated from a flower or another part of the plant is then rather uninteresting for you. However, when it comes to breeding or growing plants, you need to know how they reproduce – or even which parts are edible.

Why are fruits and vegetables at the top of the list in supermarkets?

In the supermarket, fruit and vegetables are sorted according to nutritional habits. Typical salad ingredients such as cucumber, tomato and pepper are next to each other and typical fruit such as apples, pears and grapes are usually not far apart.

Have you ever wondered why fruit and vegetables are usually offered in the entrance area of ​​the supermarket? The fruit and vegetable department slows down the running pace due to its structure and the products that the customer can smell and touch directly. As a result, customers buy more products. In addition, fruit should give the customer the feeling of fresh and healthy food.

To ensure that only healthy fruit and vegetables and no pesticides end up in your shopping basket, buy fruit from controlled organic cultivation. This is not only more appetizing, but also protects the environment.

Fruit and vegetables: The origin makes the difference

If you’re one of the lucky people with your own garden, you can see which fruits are in season. Some types of fruit and vegetables can also be grown in pots on the balcony.

Without your own harvest, you can also enjoy seasonal, regional fruit and vegetables. Seasonal fruits from your region are characterized by the fact that they have not traveled long distances and are very fresh. This saves them fuel and energy expended in bringing groceries to us from afar and storing them.

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Food

Green Vegetables: That is Why They are Particularly Healthy

Light energy makes green vegetables an essential food. But why? The keywords from biology lessons are chlorophyll and photosynthesis.

Green vegetables contain more chlorophyll

Green vegetables are green because they contain a lot of chlorophyll. The name comes from the Greek words chloros (green) and phyllon (leaf). The fabric is also called leaf green.

Chlorophyll is a natural pigment produced by plants when they carry out photosynthesis. Through chlorophyll, plants absorb light energy and convert it into chemical energy.

According to researchers at the Max Planck Institute, photosynthesis is the biochemically most important process on earth, as it forms the basis of life and food for animals and humans. Plants could not survive without photosynthesis.

When you eat green vegetables, you absorb chlorophyll and other vital and health-promoting ingredients such as vitamins, nutrients, fiber, antioxidants and carotenoids.

Superfood chlorophyll – are green vegetables healthier?

Are green vegetables healthier than vegetables of a different color due to the phytochemical chlorophyll? More and more studies show that phytochemicals have a positive effect on human metabolic processes. This applies to chlorophyll as well as, for example, to flavonoids and carotenoids. Flavonoids impart red, blue, yellow, and purple coloring to many vegetables and fruits. Carotenoids are often found in green, but also in orange-yellow-red vegetables and fruit.

The German Society for Nutrition DGE therefore recommends taking in the widest possible range of secondary plant substances. And that in the form of vegetables, legumes, fruit, nuts, seeds, potatoes and whole grain products.

The DGE advises against taking chlorophyll in high doses, for example as a dietary supplement in juices, powder or tablets. According to the DGE, the plant substances could be necessary “in the compound of a food” so that green vegetables can have a health-promoting effect. There are also no reliable studies to date on whether the preparations can lead to harmful side effects in excessive doses.

The variety of green vegetables in your kitchen

You probably eat green vegetables mostly as raw vegetables, as a salad, as a warm main course or as a warm side dish. Larger quantities can also be processed well in a smoothie, in pesto, herb butter and sauces. Here is a selection of green vegetables that you can find in almost every supermarket or market in your area:
Green leafy vegetables such as lettuce, rocket, spinach, purslane, nettle or chard
green fruit vegetables such as green peppers, cucumbers, zucchini or avocado
Green cabbage such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, or savoy cabbage
green onion vegetables such as spring onions, leeks or wild garlic
green legumes such as beans or peas
Herbs such as parsley, lovage, basil, dill, chervil, tarragon or mint
the green of vegetables such as radishes, kohlrabi or carrots
green sprouts or green asparagus plants

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health

Vitamins Obtained When Preparing Vegetables

Get tips on vitamins when cooking vegetables. Fresh vegetables should be a daily part of our diet. Because it contains many important vitamins and minerals. There are various tricks and methods to ensure that these are retained. We have collected them for you.

Because many vitamins are heat sensitive and water-soluble, they can disappear during cooking or frying. Therefore, you should only cook vegetables for a short time. Or better yet, steam it. This is how many vitamins are preserved. You can find more tips on getting the important vitamins in the following article.

Why are vitamins so important?

Vitamins are complex organic molecules. Except for a few, the human body cannot produce vitamins itself, but it needs them. Because vitamins fulfill vital functions. Accordingly, they are important for a functioning metabolism, the protection of skin and mucous membranes, and a functioning immune system. In addition, they are important for bone health, and mental health and help against spring fatigue.

Get tips on vitamins

Since they are so important to our bodies, we should be careful to preserve them when cooking, freezing, or other processing. But when cooking, it can quickly happen that the vitamin-rich vegetables overcook, so that the valuable ingredients are lost. The following tips will help you to prevent this. In our further article, you will also find out which vitamins are in which foods.

1) Raw vegetables are rich in vitamins

Instead of cooking vegetables as a side dish, you can make a salad to go with the meal using fresh ingredients. In this way, the valuable ingredients are not lost. But as already mentioned, some vegetables are better digestible when cooked. And since many vitamins can only be properly absorbed by the body in combination with fat, the salad dressing should definitely contain oil. Find out which vitamins are important for women.

2) Vitamins preserved when cooking

You should only cook vegetables for a short time with a little water (al dente) and not keep them warm for long, otherwise the valuable ingredients will be lost quickly. Since many vitamins are water-soluble, you should prepare vegetables in the steamer. Because the steam cooks it gently and the vitamins do not disappear in the cooking water. If you don’t want to buy a steamer, you can buy special steamer inserts for the saucepan online.

3) Freeze vitamin-rich vegetables correctly

Vitamins can be preserved by freezing vegetables. So you can freeze it yourself or use frozen vegetables and feed yourself rich in vitamins. It is important to freeze the vegetables as soon as possible. To freeze the food properly, you should cut it up into small pieces, blanch it briefly and then shock it in ice water. Then it goes into the freezer. Also, note our instructions for freezing meat.

4) Observe correct storage

Proper storage is crucial to prevent vitamin loss in fruit and vegetables. But the faster you eat the fruit and vegetables, the more vitamins you take in. Proper storage is not easy, as different varieties require different storage locations. For some, it should be cool and dark. While others cannot tolerate the cold and lose valuable ingredients as a result. Therefore, find out beforehand how best to store your vegetables.

5) Dry vegetables and protect vitamins

Dried fruits and vegetables have a longer shelf life. In addition, it can be very nutritious, as important minerals and trace elements are preserved during drying. However, vitamins can also be lost, which is why vitamin-preserving freeze-drying can be advisable. Also, note our other tips on drying food.

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Cooking Tips

Save Oversalted Vegetables

It has probably happened to every housewife that potatoes or vegetables were oversalted. What’s left to save? The simplest thing, of course, is to cook everything again. Since this is not always possible, we reach into our bag of tricks.

Save oversalted vegetables

  • Rescuing oversalted vegetables is a simple matter. Prepare a light base sauce without spices. Leave out the margarine in the pan and add the same amount of flour. Boil with water to create a creamy sauce. Add the vegetables, and let them soak briefly. If necessary, season to your own taste.
  • Or you can use a ready-made light sauce. However, this is only possible if the dish is not too salty because the finished sauce is already slightly seasoned.
  • Or Boil the vegetables again briefly with fresh water
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