Sautée secrets

Don’t blanch: The secret to sautéeing vegetables is a boil

Every weeknight, 6 p.m. rolls around, and across America, we scramble to find something to feed our families. Our endof-day creativity is sapped, and we turn to our core repertoire of recipes that we make over and over.

And this isn’t a bad thing: having a handful of go-to dishes in our hip pocket that we can execute without having to crack a cookbook is a smart way to get a healthy dinner on the table. If those recipes are actually plug-and-play techniques, or blueprints, then all the better.

With a blueprint, one “recipe” actually becomes hundreds of possibilities, which makes your pantry seem robust, and your menu repertoire expansive.

Today’s recipe is really a blueprint for sautéeing vegetables. I’ll skip the lecture about how healthy vegetables are. I’m guessing you already know that, so I’ll jump straight into the nuts and bolts of my Weekday Sautéed Broccoli.

I’m using broccoli for the recipe, but you could easily substitute cauliflower or carrots or asparagus, depending on what’s in season or what’s on sale or what’s hanging out in your crisper drawer. The time-saving strategy is to blanch — boil very briefly — the veggies before sautéeing. You can do this several days in advance, blanching a week’s worth of chopped veggies ahead of time and just sautéeing them in minutes before dinner. Even if you blanch and sauté the same night, the whole process will take less than 10 minutes.

Boil the veggies in salted water for just a minute or so, depending on the vegetable and texture preferences, and then use a slotted spoon to place the cut veggies in a bowl of water chilled with a few ice cubes. (And truth to be told, you can even skip the ice bath in a pinch, but it does firm up the veggies nicely and control the cooking.) Now the veggies are ready for a quick, flavourful saute.

Combine a tablespoon of olive oil or butter with your favourite spices and aromatics, and sauté with the parcooked veggies in a hot pan — which will only take a couple of minutes — and serve. I took inspiration from one of my favourite pasta dishes with garlic, anchovy, chili flakes and lemon zest, but use whatever flavours you love. Try lime zest, cumin, green onion and a splash of soy sauce to finish, or dried herbs, shallot and smoked paprika also work great. Once you master the basic technique, get creative, swapping out vegetables and flavour profiles to perk up your weeknight veggie game.

I’m using broccoli for the recipe, but you could easily substitute cauliflower or carrots or asparagus, depending on what’s in season or what’s on sale or what’s hanging out in your crisper drawer.