How to Blanch Green beans

As I'm reworking the blog, I've decided I'm going to share what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis in my kitchen. This morning I did some veggie prep. I always blanch green beans, no matter how I am going to cook them. (In case you don't know already, blanching the green beans simply refers to cooking them for a short period of time in boiling water, then immediately putting them into cold ice water to stop the cooking process.) I find that it makes them more tender and helps them to cook through in the inside before they have completely burnt on the outside. Plus they turn a beautiful vibrant green.

First you need to prep your green beans. I have been prepping fresh green beans for pretty much my entire life. My grandmother has a huge garden and it is mostly made up of green beans. I pop off both ends of green beans, carefully pulling down the bean to remove any strings. I leave the beans long because we love them that way. My grandmother always had us "pop" the beans in to smaller pieces.

First of all, I GREATLY underestimated the number of green bean plants I should, well, plant. We moved this summer (Yay!), so we inherited the garden that was already at our house (also yay!), but we added a few of our own touches as well. We planted 3 green bean sprouts...one of which I accidentally destroyed. For the record, 2 green bean plants do not grow nearly enough green beans to feed my family. So here are my beans all prepped:

Look at the right side...the original plan was to compare the color of the green beans from my garden to the store bought ones (the ones from the garden were much darker!). But just look at the tiny little spot of green beans on the left (grown by me) versus the giant mountain of green beans from the grocery store. Ah well...seems like next year I'll need to plant at least 10 green bean plants! 

So, back to the blanching...prep your green beans, give them a rinse, and bring some water up to a boil. I add some salt to the water after it starts boiling to season the beans. Add your green beans a little at a time. I like to add a handful let it come back to a bubble, then add another handful, and so on until they are all boiling. If you add them all at once, your water will stop boiling then you will have to wait for it to come back up to a boil and you might over cook your beans! Blanching is quick cooking...like 3-5 minutes. I cooked mine for 4 minutes. After cooking you plunge the green beans into ice water.

Okay, bear with me, I'm about to break all the rules.

You see, I don't put my blanched veggies into a bowl of ice water. That creates a bowl that is now dirty and has to be washed...and I hate washing dishes. So I put a good layer of ice in the bottom of my colander, fish the green beans out of the pot with a slotted spoon and add them to the icy colander. I do this as quickly as possible and I have additional ice standing by to add through out. Then I run cold water from the faucet and move the green beans around. They are still in ice water, but there is no extra bowl!

Next I move the green beans to a towel to dry. Note that the towel is on a baking sheet...this is not an extra dirty dish. I will use this to roast these green beans later tonight for dinner.

Also I find that fresh green beans last longer after blanched and dried. Fresh green beans only last a few days in the fridge without getting all brown and yucky, but this seems to extend the life for a few more days. Also, now my beans are fully prepped and ready to be cooked at dinner time. More on dinner later...for now, happy vegetable blanching!