Not only is green vegetables a good source of vitamins and minerals for your health, but they also have a refreshing taste that many people love. With this familiar ingredient, you can prepare many delicious dishes such as steaming, boiling, soup, stir-frying…
By habit, most people will put the vegetables directly into the pan and stir-fry them until cooked. However, there are 4 types of vegetables that you must blanch before cooking. The reason for this is because they contain a certain amount of preservatives and have a high level of oxalic acid, which can cause health problems if not blanched. In addition, the high level of oxalic acid also makes your food taste bitter and hinders the body’s calcium absorption process. Therefore, before stir-frying, you need to blanch these 4 types of vegetables in hot water for about 10 to 20 seconds.
Jackfruit
Jackfruit is a familiar ingredient in many families’ meals with dishes such as stir-fried jackfruit with beef, boiled jackfruit… Because this is also one of the vegetables that contains a lot of oxalic acid, you need to blanch the jackfruit in boiling water before stir-frying.
First, remove the two ends and the fibrous part next to this vegetable, then cut them into small bite-sized pieces. After washing the jackfruit thoroughly and draining the water, you will put them into a pot of boiling water and blanch for about 20 seconds, then remove. To keep the jackfruit green in color, you can add a little cooking oil to the boiling water.
Water spinach
Known by many different names such as morning glory, ong choy… water spinach is a nutritious food, especially rich in calcium and iron. Besides, this vegetable also contains a high level of oxalic acid, so you need to blanch it in boiling water before cooking dishes like stir-fried water spinach, salad…
After buying water spinach, clean it and put it into a pot of boiling water for about 20 seconds, then remove and serve on a plate. Especially, you can add a little baking soda to this pot of water to get better results.
Celery
As a food rich in vitamins and important nutrients, celery is extremely good for health, especially for middle-aged and elderly people. However, this vegetable also contains a considerable amount of oxalic acid, so the blanching step before cooking is essential. When blanching celery, you only need to blanch for about 30 seconds because if you leave it in hot water for too long, the chlorophyll in this vegetable can be destroyed, making it lose its attractive color and taste.
Mushrooms
In addition, before stir-frying mushrooms, you should blanch them to remove harmful substances to health and keep the mushrooms crispy, nutritious.