A lesson in blanching

How to prepare your fresh greens for freezing

What an incredible growing season! I don’t want to jinx it, but my veggie garden is flourishing. Let’s hope it keeps up. I’ve noticed a lot of people have picked up gardening over the last year or so.

Whether it’s plants or veggies, I love seeing so many people out enjoying their garden.

There’s truly nothing better, more relaxing, or satisfying, than gardening.

I love stepping out on my patio first thing in the morning, coffee in hand, to breath in the fresh air and do my morning rounds of the garden.

It’s the routine of watering, making sure the bug mesh hasn’t blown off and looking to see if the pesky bugs were chowing down on veggies like cabbage and greens.

“We don’t have any vegetable jokes yet. So if you do, lettuce know.” — Unknown

Speaking of greens, I decided to do something a little different this year.

I bought a big planter for my patio, specifically to grow greens. It’s set up so I can step outside our kitchen patio door and easily harvest what I need — super convenient.

I planted different varieties of lettuce, spinach, kale, Swiss chard, bok choy, cilantro (to keep the bugs away) and turnip greens.

Holy moly! I didn’t expect it to take off like it has.

I haven’t really had great success with greens in the past.

They’ve either bolted early due to the heat, gotten eaten by bugs or just didn’t grow well.

I think this year’s success is due to feeding the soil.

I added in things like worm casings, chicken manure and kelp.

Problem is, they’re growing like weeds, in a good way though.

I’m surprised we haven’t turned green.

Similar to when I was an infant and my mom took me to the doctor because I was turning yellow.

Why? Well, the doctor said she needed to introduce a few different veggies to my homemade baby food diet.

Way too much carotene on a diet of only carrots and sweet potatoes. Imagine! LOL

Given I didn’t want to waste any of this precious fresh food, I decided to try a few new things.

One is a green smoothie. That’s right, foodie friends. I started to add all sorts of leafy greens to my morning smoothies.

The thing I want to talk about this week is blanching your fresh, leafy greens. Have you done it before? I’ve read that blanching is critical to retaining the flavour of veggies when freezing.

It’s a great way of preserving fresh produce.

Essentially, the process involves boiling, cooling and freezing.

But there are important steps to take in this process to reap the full benefits.

“Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon.” — Doug Larson

What do you do? Boil a pot of salted water.

Heads-up, having a steamer basket is convenient for blanching.

Once boiled, put your greens in the pot or place them in the steamer basket and lower them down into the boiling water.

Leave them in there from anywhere to 15 seconds to two minutes max, depending on the type of green.

Then, immediately take them out and place the greens in an icy cold water bath.

Cooling the vegetables takes about the same amount of time as boiling them.

Take them out of the ice water and place them on a tea towel or paper towel, and allow them to dry, making sure all the excess water is out.

Then, they’re ready to package and freeze.

When it comes to freezing, I like to portion it out for two people so it’s easy peasy when you take them out.

Blanching is a must-do for most vegetables before you freeze them but make sure you don’t go over the required boiling time as over-blanching can lead to such things as loss of flavour, colour, texture, vitamins and minerals.

“I’m strong to the finish, ’cause I eat my spinach. I’m Popeye the Sailor Man.” — Popeye the Sailor Man theme song

You can blanch all sorts of veggies — asparagus, beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and carrots — the list is endless.

Don’t you just love a good foodie tip that provides you with less wastage in the kitchen and garden?

Happy blanching, foodie friends!