How to blanch vegetables in advance to save time

If you want to make your life easier when preparing a number of dishes for dinner, you can blanch the vegetables ahead of time. Blanching is a process of plunging food into hot water, precooking them & then shocking them in a bath of ice water to stop the cooking process. The blanch process preserves the bright color of vegetables, allows easy peeling for fruit, and makes skinning nuts much easier. You will not loose the crisp texture of food when blanching. Most restaurants use the blanch method to prepare their vegetables ahead of time.