Cooked broccoli turns brown...

[msphoebe]

I have a problem...when I blanch broccoli for, say, a marinated vegetable salad, it always turns brown by serving time. I have tried plunging it into ice water, but it didn't seem to help.

Any hints or tips on keeping my broccoli GREEN?

TIA

[Malawry]

Cook in an open pot filled with plenty of boiling water with plenty of salt in it. Don't put too much in the pot at once, do it in batches if needed. Shock immediately in ice water when you remove it from the water. Let it sit in the ice water for roughly half the amount of time you boiled it, and then pull it out and drain it. It should be bright green and keep just fine at this point. I wouldn't add a vinaigrette to it until the last minute, right before serving. That way the acids can't wilt the broccoli.

[Rachel Perlow]

Use fresh broccoli.

Only blanch it briefly, like for 60-90 seconds. You want to remove it directly to ice water to stop the cooking.

After it has cooled in the ice water, strain it, then spin it in a salad spinner to remove excess water.

Store in an airtight container until you are ready to dress/marinate it.

You can really only store cooked broccoli for a day or two, and don't marinate it more than 1 day in advance or it will get all funky, in my experience.

edit: oh yeah, salt the water.

[msphoebe]

Thanks! Will follow your instructions to a "T" and should have better luck. In the past, I've usually added the marinade (or dressing) the night before serving, if serving for lunch. This may be part of the problem as well.

May sound corny...but I just LOVE to learn and appreciate all the good information here at eG.

[Suzanne F]

Wilting from the dressing is not the problem; the problem is the chemical reaction between the acid in the dressing and the chlorophyll in the cooked broccoli. Shirley Corriher explains it all in Cookwise: when the broccoli is blanched, the magnesium in the chlorophyll is replaced by hydrogen, which accelerates the acidic reaction and the color change. She suggests three possible solutions:

• Avoid acids.
  
• Dress the vegetables just before serving.
  
• Keep the vegetables raw.
  

Apparently, cooking (even when done uncovered, and followed immediately by a plunge into ice water) makes the color-change problem worse because it breaks the cell walls enough to allow that magnesium-hydrogen exchange and removes the protection around the chlorophyll.

[msphoebe]

Great info! From now on...the dressing goes on IMMEDIATELY before serving!