I'm working on roasted vegetables and I'd like to try blanching them, but I wonder how long they should boil for. I want to make a medley of beets, carrots, red potatoes, and cauliflower. I assume the cauliflower would need less time than the others. Also, should I bother with cooling them down if they're going right into the oven?
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We roast a ton of vegetables at work. We don't blanch any of them. We just toss them with olive oil and seasonings, place in the oven(350-400) and let 'em rip. If we do a medley that contains a combination of long and short cooking veggies, we cook all the long cooking veggies together and the short cooking veggies together, then we combine the two for service. As your bbq is just an oven really, the same rule(s) apply.
Having said that, if you would like to experiment by roasting pre-blanched veggies, then try this:
Root vegetables(potatoes, carrots, turnips, rutabagas, etc.) blanch until cooked, but still firm.The cook time will depend on the size the veggies are cut to.
Broccoli, cauliflower,corn, etc., about 2-3 minutes till their color brightens.
Quench veggies after cooking in ice water, then drain very well.
Another tip: when blanching, add lemon to the blanching water. About ½ a lemon per quart of water should get you there. This is especially good with the root veggies. Also, don't forget to salt the water.
I hope this helps. -
I'm curious, Eugene, why do you want to blanch them?Comment
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The idea was to prep more efficiently if I'm going to try serving larger portions. Just seeing what I could group together into chunks, if it made sense (for example, blanch night before, then cook next day).Comment
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Eugene... This site goes into great detail on kitchen prep and blanching veggies. There are videos too. http://stellaculinary.com/kitchen-prep-video-indexComment
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