Blanching and freezing vegetables

Two minutes in boiling water, an ice-cold shock, pat dry — and vegetables stay green for a year.

Raw vegetables lose colour, vitamins and bite in the freezer because their enzymes keep working. Blanching stops them: briefly into boiling salted water, straight into ice water, drain well. Beans, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peas, spinach, kale, kohlrabi — anything you would cook anyway.

Do not blanch: peppers, onions, mushrooms, herbs, tomatoes (they go mushy after thawing and belong in a sauce then), berries. Pre-freeze everything on a tray and only then bag it — that way nothing sticks together.