How To Blanch Green Beans

Steps

I'm going to show you how to blanch French beans over here, my way. Very important guys, here a pan of boiling water, you know, ferociously boiling water but my little trick here. If you add some salt to the boiling water, it oxidizes the water.


It raises the temperature so we've got ferociously boiling water. Very important, you've got to keep the color and the crispness of you vegetables, you know. When we cook our vegetables, I will need some ice.

I have a bowl of ice ready to go now so when we're cooking our vegetables, straight out and we shuck them straight into a bowl of water and that keeps the color and stops them from cooking. Very important so if you're ready for that, you have no problems. And that boiling water, we are just waiting for that water to boil now.

It comes to a boil now. So, with my French beans, what I've done is prepped them up very quickly. Just chopped and towelled them.

Very simple. So now, our water is coming to a boil. It's come to a ferocious, really boiling now.

We've added salt to it so I'm ready to add my French beans to it, which I've trimmed up. Just a handful, strain some into my water now. Like I said, depending on the size of your beans, depending on the size of your pot, I reckon between two to three minutes, no longer.

Again, it's a personal thing. If you like them crispy, take them out early. If you like a bit more well done, then, you know, leave them a bit longer.

It's coming to a boil now. I've added my salt. Now, I'm just waiting for my French beans to come to a nice little simmer, waiting for them to, sort of, cook quite nicely.

Then, like I said, straight into cold water, shock them to keep the color. Very important. Here we are, coming to a nice little boil now.

Like I said, the salt has brought the water temperature is oxidize the water. It moves it around, keeps it going. Keeping it going now, very important to have our ice water, again.

This applies to all green vegetables. Every single green vegetable needs to be in boiling water, it has to be, to keep the color. You can't be cabbage or broccoli in cold water.

One, the color will be horrible. It can be done but it's all rubbish, trust me. So, we're looking for the color.

We're looking for it to be cooked properly. My water now has come to that ferocious boil. Now, I'm going to take them out of that pan.

I like them quite crispy so they're going to come out now and into our cold water. Straight in there and, like I said before, keeps the color. Keeps them nice and crispy.

So now, what to do with these now is, the next step is, at home, you've cooked your beans in the pan, some butter, some olive oil and just reheat them gently. Some salt and pepper. Some almonds.

And, that's how I blanch my French beans. .