Top each serving of broccoli with a generous spoonful. With yogurt sauce: Mix together ¾ cup plain yogurt, 3 tablespoons green peppercorn or Dijon mustard, 3 tablespoons minced black olives and 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Season to taste with kosher salt and several turns of black pepper. With mustard: Mix together ⅓ cup sour cream or crème fraîche, 2 tablespoons half-and-half and 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard. After adding water to the pot, add the sliced stems first, then the florets on top. Cut the stems into thin (about ⅛-inch) diagonal slices. Variation: If you prefer broccoli in pieces rather than stalks, first cut the florets from the stems and break them into pieces if they are large. When just tender, remove from the heat and enjoy right away or set aside until ready to use. Set over medium heat, bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and cook until the broccoli is just tender, about 7 minutes.Īfter the broccoli has been cooking for about 2 minutes, remove the lid for 15 seconds then cover again this will disperse some of the sulfur compounds many people dislike. Arrange the stalks in the pan stem side down. Pour a small amount of water (about ½ inch) in a pan large enough to hold the broccoli. Simple Steamed Broccoliġ - ½ pounds broccoli, separated into single stalks Broccoli goes extremely well with mustard, to which it is related both are brassicas. Once you’ve steamed it, you can enjoy it neat or dress it up with a flavored butter, vinaigrette or another sauce or condiment. All you need is a pot large enough to hold all the broccoli and a tight-fitting lid. You don’t need a proper steamer to cook broccoli. Today’s recipes feature both broccoli and broccolini. It should look pert and fresh, without wilted flowers or blemishes. Sprouting broccoli, often called broccolini, has flower buds, some open to reveal yellow blossoms, some tightly closed. Overcooked, it also turns an unappetizing shade of brown. Like other cruciferous vegetables, it releases sulfur compounds when heated and gives off an aroma not unlike rotten eggs, a smell that increases the longer broccoli is cooked. If you have an aversion to broccoli, it may because of its smell when it’s overcooked. With iron, calcium, vitamins A and C and lots of other nutrients, it’s easy to understand broccoli’s reputation as one of the healthiest foods around.
Broccoli has a bright, clean smell when it is fresh pass up broccoli with an aroma of decay, limp leaves, brown spots or slimy patches on the stalks.īroccoli will keep, stored in the refrigerator in an open plastic bag, for several days, though it is best to use it within a day or 2, when its nutritional content is highest. Darker broccoli means there is more beta carotene and vitamin C in the stalks. When choosing broccoli, look for slender, crisp stalks with tightly closed florets without any traces of yellow, which indicates the broccoli is well past its prime.
The key difference, in addition to taste, is that there is always less waste a pound of broccoli from the farmers market usually yields a pound of broccoli. At the farmers markets, broccoli sometimes is sold by the bunch and sometimes by the pound. In most markets, broccoli is sold in 1½- to 2-pound bunches, which yield about 1 pound of broccoli, enough to serve 3 or 4 people as a side dish. Farmers market broccoli is absolutely great - the stalks often are more slender and tender. Like many cool-weather crops, most broccoli, including that sold at supermarkets, is pretty good - built to last and less vulnerable than tender summer crops that must be eaten soon after harvest.
In broccoli, we find that wonderful intersection of extremely good-for-you and delicious.Īlthough broccoli is at its peak in cold weather, it now grows year-round in California, which provides nearly all of the nation’s supply. Cooked briefly and simply dressed, it’s a delight. Didn’t we stop overcooking vegetables in the 1960s? That’s about the only way to harm broccoli - to overcook it. It’s constantly maligned and scorned the way spinach and lima beans were when I was a kid.
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