Preserving colour of vegetables in Chinese hakka noodles I typically need to cook dinner a couple of hours before dinner time. When I make Chinese hakka noodles, the vegetables (beans, carrot, capsicum etc.) lose their bright colours by the time noodles go on the plates. All the vegetables look very dull. Is theer any way to stop this discolouration?
It's quite a simple technique actually, called blanching. You just need to:


Dip the vegetables in boiling water for a short time (10-20 seconds)
Immediately transfer them to ice-water (or cold/running water, if you don't have ice), to stop them from cooking with the carry-over heat. (This is also called shocking), and seperate.
Later, just before serving, combine and heat the vegetables back to the serving temperature.