Vegetables are a must when putting together a pasta salad. While some garden goodies like cucumbers and tomatoes are best served raw, other vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and bell peppers can benefit from blanching. Blanching helps brighten the color, preserve the flavor, and clean the dirt and other organisms off the surface of the food. It also makes the vegetables easier to digest. Blanching is most often done in water, but steam and microwave blanching are other common methods.
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Blanching Vegetables for Pasta Salad