The Flavorful Liquid That Blanches Canned Veggies Better Than Water

Hopefully you've already seen the light and realized you can blanch your canned veggies to make them taste like they're fresh from the market. It's a trick I love, considering I absolutely adore canned veggies and the easy, quick nutritional boost they provide to just about any meal. You can add canned vegetables to hearty casseroles, comforting soups, stir-fry, and so many tasty meals in between. But, you can do more than just breathe life back into your canned veggies by blanching them, which means putting them quickly into boiling water and then into an ice bath. You can add extra flavor and kick those veggies up a notch, and it takes literally zero extra effort. All you have to do is swap out that water for vegetable broth.

This easy swap is just as simple as it sounds. When you're blanching your canned veggies, just boil them in vegetable stock or broth instead of plain water. Even though you only need to blanch veggies for around two minutes, that's still a couple of minutes of marination time where they can soak up all the delicious herbs, seasoning, and flavor in whatever stock you choose. You can also do a mix of half water and half vegetable broth for a bit of a milder flavor, or if you want your veggie stock to have a bit more mileage. And the process itself is so simple.

Blanching is a pretty easy technique, but it never hurts to have a few extra tips and tricks up your sleeve. You want to keep an eye on the pot the entire time it's boiling so you can transfer your veggies over to their ice bath immediately — an important step if you want to avoid one of the most common mistakes that prevent perfectly blanched vegetables. Giving the canned veggies a stir in the cold water will help to disperse the heat faster and more evenly. Don't be afraid to add extra ice to the bath if it melts away quickly, too.

You could also add some extra seasonings and herbs to your veggie broth bath for an even tastier final product. What you add will depend on what you're making, but speaking more generally, try tossing in cayenne, black and white pepper, garlic cloves, and cardamom for a punch of flavor. 

If you want to go the extra mile and make your own veggie stock or broth, this not only helps you pick the exact flavors in your canned veggies, but it gives you full control over the sodium, too. After all, canned broths and veggies both contain salt for flavoring and preservatives like citric acid, so adding an extra-salty veggie broth to the mix may not be ideal for everyone. For the lazy among us, boxed or canned stock does the trick just fine — but you could always drain and rinse the canned veggies before blanching to reduce the sodium content.