verb · neutral
blanch
UK/blɑːntʃ/US/blæntʃ/BLANCH
to briefly cook food in boiling water and then plunge it into cold water to stop cooking
Examples
“Blanch the green beans for two minutes before shocking them in ice water.”
“The almonds were blanched to remove their skins.”
“Blanching helps preserve the vivid colour of vegetables for frozen storage.”
Band 8 sentence
“Vegetables destined for freezing are meticulously blanched to halt enzyme activity and to lock in colour and nutrients.”
Collocations
- blanch vegetables
- blanch and shock
- blanch almonds
Word family
Common mistakes
whitewash→blanch
I blanching the vegetables now→I am blanching the vegetables now
Say it for a higher band
5boil→6parboil→7+blanch
Synonyms
parboil
Easily confused
parboil
“To prepare the peas for freezing, blanch them for one minute and then plunge into ice water.”
Related words
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In Food & Cooking
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