A simple method for cooking broccoli produces “quick, easy, flavourful” results – and it doesn’t involve boiling. Lisa Todd, creator of food and lifestyle blog An Appetising Life, shares all kinds of recipes to help make sure your homecooked meals are as tasty as possible.
In a video on the blog’s YouTube channel, Lisa shared her recipe for sautéed broccoli, comparing it to the disappointing results you can get when you boil the green vegetable. Introducing the method, she said: “Think back to when you were a kid and your mum or dad made your broccoli, and it was just not good right?”, saying it was probably boiled to “within an inch of its life” with a bit of salt “if you were lucky”.
Lisa says the veggie “deserves a little better treatment than that”, and showed how she gets the consistency and flavour just right.
She starts by cutting off the florets and breaking them up into “bitesized” pieces.
Lisa keeps the stalk, removing bits that are sticking and peeling it, before chopping it into coin-shaped pieces.
She then blanches the broccoli in a large saucepan with generous amounts of salt for a minute or so before dropping into a pre-prepared ice bath to pause the cooking process.
The cooking expert drains the bowl before sautéing the stalk pieces and florettes in a pan with oil, adding salt and pepper, lemon zest and juice, and some red chilli flakes for a “kick”.
You can find the full recipe and directions on how to make the delicious dish here.
Meanwhile, another expert says one method can “transform” the veggie and is incredibly easy too.
Nagi Maehashi the voice and cook behind RecipeTin Eats says roasting is a great way to maximise texture and flavour.
Nagi said the dish is “insanely simple to make, but it’s the best broccoli recipe ever! I call it ‘magic broccoli’ because it is magic how a little roasting and a drizzle of lemon juice and parmesan can transform broccoli.
“Roasting is the key here. Roasted broccoli has a flavour that puts plain steamed broccoli to shame!”