If you cook broccoli often, you may feel like you’re wasting a large amount of food by throwing away the stem every time. However, this doesn’t have to be the case, and you can actually eat it. The stem has a slightly different texture and taste from the florets, but this doesn’t mean it isn’t delicious in its own right. A chef has revealed his favourite way to eat the broccoli stems — and anyone can follow his simple steps.
Chef Michael, known to his 1.2 million TikTok followers as @stoveandgarden, said that when you are cooking broccoli, you should never throw away the stalk. He said that instead, you should cut it off, before thinning off the edges and cutting them into match stick shapes.
These can be cooked in a pan with a little bit of soy sauce and oil. “They are so flavourful and they taste just like sautéed onions,” Michael said. You can also use the stem raw — simply shred it in a food processor or with a box grater for a homemade version of broccoli slaw, experts at The Kitchn recommended. They explained that this can be used as a replacement for cabbage coleslaw, or added to dishes like tacos for an “extra crunch”.
The stem of broccoli is tougher than the florets, but it has a mild flavour that’s “crisp and crunchy when raw and becomes tender and almost juicy when cooked.” The leaves are also edible and, in texture and flavour, similar to kale, The Kitchn said.
Michael has shared a range of cooking tips to minimise waste that he learnt from working in professional kitchens. One involves taking vegetable scraps and adding them to a pot with water to make the start of a stock.
If you have any herbs that are dying or drying out in your fridge, you can add them to some melted butter, garlic, and some spices. Melt it, stir together, and add the mixture to an ice cube tray for freezing. You now have some “great flavour enhancers” for your next dish, Michael said.
To get your avocado halves to last longer, try squeezing fresh lemon juice and brushing it over the open half of the fruit. Then, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and this will stop it from browning quite so quickly.
Not everyone will have a lemon juicer, but you can still get the most out of juicing a lemon without one, and all you need is a pair of kitchen tongs. Place the lemon between the long parts of the tongs and squeeze on either side. This will also stop it from getting all over your fingers.