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Home > Cooking Techniques > Blanching and Shocking Vegetables

Blanching and Shocking Veggies

If preparing well ahead of time, you will want to blanch & shock the veggies. If preparing for immediate eating or cooking, there is no need to shock. Blanching is a technique of cooking items briefly in large amount of rapidly boiling, salted water. Shocking means quickly stopping the cooking process of blanched items by plunging them in ice water.

Ingredients

  • Veggies
  • Coarse sea salt
  • Water
  • (If shocking) Ice cubes

Equipment

  • 6 or 8 qt pot
  • Slotted spoon, bamboo strainer or tongs
  • (If shocking) 4-6 qt bowl
  • (If shocking) storage containers

Directions

1. Mise en Place

  • Cut items roughly the same size for uniform blanching.
  • Fill pot 2/3 full with water. Add 2 Tbsp of coarse sea salt for each 4 qts water.
  • Bring water to a boil on HIGH.

2. Cook

  • Add items to be blanched to pot. Don’t cover and don’t overcrowd – blanch in small batches to maintain water’s boil.
  • Boil per recipe directions. (Typically, veggies blanch for 3-5 min.)

3. Finish

  • Test for doneness. Remove a piece with large slotted spoon, bamboo strainer or tongs. Pinch between fingers. Veggies should be blanched until the “crunch” is gone, but there is still some resistance.
  • Shocking (optional, for later use):
    1. Transfer veggies to 4-6 qt bowl filled with ice cubes and water. This water MUST stay cold. If ice starts to melt, add more.
    2. Remove veggies with slotted spoon or bamboo strainer as soon as cool to the touch. If prepping ahead, refrigerate, covered, for later use.