I harvested overwintered broccoli leaves from the garden and wondered how they’d turn out if blanched for an antipasto salad. The technique worked, so I began blanching kale, collards, chard, green beans, carrots, peas, onions… I blanched every sturdy vegetable we had.

Blanching makes colors pop. It creates bright verdant beans and flashing orange carrots, and  produces a crisp crudite bite. Now, more challenging veggies aren’t raw at one extreme or limp on the other, but perfecto.

Blanching expands your repertoire. I eat a lot more cold veggies that I thought were best warm, and  it slows down spoilage, so I can keep salads longer.

I make quick pickles by blanching sturdy vegetables and then adding herbs and spices. I’m including a recipe for a tumeric carrot and onion pickle that’s become an addiction.

Urap Urap and Gado Gado are two Indonesian salads that use blanched vegetables. The salads layer fresh herbs and spicy dressings over crudite style greens, carrots, green beans, peppers, and more. I’m experimenting with this technique and am hooked. 

For an Indonesian style salad, blanch up several types of in season sturdy greens, roots, beans or summer squash and keep them in the fridge ready to go. Then, make a dressing, which is easy, and have fresh herbs like Thai basil, mint and cilantro washed and ready, a squeeze of lime and you’ll have an amazing salad. Here’s a dressing I like to use

Coconut and Lime Leaf Dressing

Ingredients

5 Thai lime leaves with ribs removed

2 cloves garlic

2 fresh chilies (you choose the heat level)

2 teaspoons fresh turmeric 

1 ½ tablespoons fresh ginger

4 tablespoons sugar

4 tablespoons lime juice plus zest of the whole lime

1 cup toasted coconut flakes

Enough coconut milk to loosen the dressing and make it moist

1 teaspoon sea salt

Grind all ingredients together into a chunky smooth paste.

How do you blanch again?

1)    Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil with the lid on.

2)    While you’re waiting for the water to boil, cut up the vegetables: carrot sticks, broccoli florets, chopped greens. Try to make each kind of vegetable the same size and shape so they’ll cook evenly. Put them into separate piles, because they’ll also need to cook for different amounts of time.

3)    Have a big bowl of ice water sitting in the sink, or if you’re feeling lazy just cold water.

4)    Add the vegetables to the boiling water in small batches so that the water continues to boil. I rarely add salt, but you can.  If you’re blanching more than one kind of vegetable, blanch each separately and blanch lighter colored ones first, so they won’t darken whatever comes next. It will take a moment for the water to come back to the boil after adding the vegetables, so start timing when the water is boiling.

5)    When each type of vegetable is done, remove them with a slotted spoon and plunge into the ice bath to stop the cooking process (This is called “shocking”). If you were lazy and didn’t use ice water, then keep changing the water until the vegetables are cool. When cool, remove them from the ice bath and drain on a towel. Pat the greens dry.

Carrot and Onion Pickle with Turmeric

Makes 1 quart

Ingredients

4 medium carrots cut into thin 2 inch sticks

1 medium onion sliced thin Chinese style

Flavor paste

2 cloves garlic

1-inch piece peeled fresh ginger

1 inch piece peeled fresh turmeric

½ teaspoon black mustard seed

1 teaspoon whole coriander seed

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon white whole cane sugar

4 tablespoons rice vinegar

Directions

Blanch the onions and carrots in rapidly boiling water for 1 minute. Drain and immediately plunge into an ice bath.Combine the flavor paste ingredients and blend in a food processor until smooth. Mix the paste with the drained vegetables to serve. They keep well and the flavor develops with time.

Javanese Cashew Sauce

Makes about 3 ½ cups

2 cups dry roasted cashews

1 ½ teaspoons shrimp paste

1 teaspoon sriracha hot sauce

2 cloves garlic minced

3-4 tablespoons coconut sugar

1 ⅔  cup unsweetened thick canned coconut milk

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

½ teaspoon sea salt or to taste

Water as needed to loosen the sauce

Directions

1)    Dry roast the cashews in a heavy-bottomed saute pan until toasty and fragrant

2)    Put shrimp paste into a folded over a piece of parchment paper, squishing it slightly to flatten. Lay it in a saute pan on medium low heat. Turn the paper often, until it releases a burning shrimpy smell about 1½ minutes.

3)    Add the shrimp paste, cashews, sugar, chili, and garlic to a food processor and process until well ground but not butter.

4)    Add ingredients to a heavy-bottomed saute pan with the coconut milk. Cook at a gentle simmer for about 7 minutes, and then add the salt, vinegar and water. The sauce should be the consistency of pea soup. Add water or continue to cook until it reaches this consistency. Taste and correct seasoning as needed.

Fingerling Classic Potato Salad

Serves 4

When you need a classic potato salad. 

Ingredients

2 lbs waxy fingerling potatoes, cooked whole in Instant Pot for 10 minutes with a natural release, peeled after cooking, cut lengthwise and sliced into small chunks

⅓ to ½ cup mayonnaise (homemade preferred)

2 teaspoons Dijon style mustard

½ cup chopped parsley

1 cup fresh snap peas, briefly blanch or 1 cup frozen shelling peas

¾ cup dill pickles, chopped 

½ cup scallions, white and green portions, finely sliced

1 teaspoon Maldon’s flaked sea salt or to taste 

Pinch of red chili flakes 

Pinch of sweet paprika

2 teaspoons potato salad spice mix (recipe follows)

4 boiled and peeled eggs, cut into quarters lengthwise, and dusted with salt and spice mix

Potato Salad Spice Mix  (grind together in a spice mill or coffee grinder and store in a jar or tin) 

2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds

1 tablespoon dried ginger

1 teaspoon white peppercorns

2 teaspoons fennel seeds

1 tablespoon garlic powder

3 tablespoons dehydrated onion flakes

3 dried bay leaves, crushed

Directions

Using an Instant Pot, fill the bottom of the inner pot with 1 cup of water. Insert a steamer basket with washed potatoes. Secure the lid and cook at high pressure for 10 minutes with a natural release. Rinse cooked potatoes under cold water and peel off the skins with your fingers. Slice lengthwise and slice into bite-sized chunks. Put potatoes into a serving bowl and sprinkle with salt and spice mix.

Blanch the snap peas by briefly submerging in boiling water for 30 seconds and then running under cold water. I bring water to a boil in a shallow skillet. Add the chopped snap peas, wait 30 seconds and pour the peas out into a strainer. Immediately rinse the peas with cold water to stop the cooking. If you’re using frozen peas, then there’s no need to blanch them, just add them frozen to the salad.   

Mix the mustard into the mayonnaise and gently fold into the potatoes. Add the peas, parsley, dill pickles and scallions to the salad and fold in. Sprinkle it with the red chili flakes and paprika.

Arrange the egg slices on the top sprinkled with salt and spice mix.

It’s fun to decorate the edge of the bowl with lettuce leaves. 

This is amazing mayo and would make an excellent potato salad, but to make some quick and delicious mayo for this recipe just leave out the sugar, tarragon and chive blossoms.

Tarragon and Chive Blossom Mayonnaise

Makes 1¼ cups

When the tarragon leaves are young and the chives thick with purple blooms, then this mayonnaise is genuine love. It’s wonderful with fish, poultry, vegetables of all kinds... or just by the spoonful.

Ingredients

2 egg yolks

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon raw honey

⅓ cup packed fresh tarragon leaves

5 chive heads, use the blossoms removed from the head

1 cup walnut or avocado oil

Directions

In a food processor, combine everything except the oil, pulsing them together. Slowly, pour  the walnut oil through the feeder tube, in a thin stream, with the machine running. It may take less than the full cup. Stop pouring when the mayonnaise is thick. It will keep for a week refrigerated.