I stopped blanching vegetables before shocking them in ice water

Used to drop everything into an ice bath after blanching, thinking it kept the color bright. Now I just spread them on a sheet tray and let them steam off 2 minutes. Has anyone else ditched the ice bath?

2 comments

2 Comments

maryadams14d agoMost Upvoted

Read somewhere that the whole ice bath thing is actually more about stopping the cooking process for texture, not just color. A chef on a podcast said the steam off method works fine if you're not going for that super crunchy snap, but if you want to keep things really crisp you still need the cold water. I tried skipping it with green beans once and they came out a little mushy, so I still do the ice bath for stuff like asparagus or broccoli.

rubyj1113d ago

Hmm, I tried skipping the ice bath with asparagus once and honestly couldn't tell the difference... but maybe my standards for crunchy are lower than most people's.