Thursday, January 7, 2010

Favorite Broccoli Recipes



Since broccoli keeps being on sale at the grocery store, I've been trying to find yummy reasons to buy it.

Here are three of my favorite things to do with broccoli these days. If you have other broccoli ideas, I'd love to hear them.

I don't have pictures of these recipes because let's face it...I'm doing good to get this stuff cooked up. I never remember to grab a camera when little hands are grabbing at their dinner.

Broccoli Salad Number One

Lynsey's recipe
is delicious. Just wanted to vouch for that one.

Broccoli Salad Number Two

I got this from my friend, Ashley.

I could eat my weight in this stuff.

If anyone knows of a healthier way to "do the mayonnaise thing" I'd love to know your mayo ways.

2-4 bunches of Broccoli
1/2 pound bacon fried and crumbled
1 C red onion chopped
1C raisins
1 large block mozarella cheese cut in cubes

Sauce-
2 C mayo
4T vinegar
1/2 C sugar
Pour sauce over ingredients above.
You can cut this recipe in half, it makes a lot.

When we eat those salads, we usually have the salad and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. Our favorite way to do grilled cheese these days is to use homemade bread and sliced cheddar cheese. Yum.

Whole Wheat Linguine with Broccoli

Here is the original recipe from the Whole Foods Cook Book if you want to do things by the book:

1 pound whole wheat linguine or spaghetti
olive oil
1 head of broccoli, trimmed and cut into small florets
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes
1 tablespoon tamari (or soy sauce)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 cup pine nuts, toasted
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the noodles separate. Toast the pine nuts in olive oil and set aside. Cook broccoli in olive oil in a skillet on the stove for about five minutes. You may need to add a little bit of water as the broccoli is cooking to keep it from burning. Add garlic and red chili flakes. Saute one minute. In a large bowl combine the cooked wheat noodles and broccoli mixture. Add the tamari, cheese and pine nuts. Add the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.

Now...

I made it that way originally and it tasted like a big pile of nothing. I was very disappointed.

So, I tweaked it a bit and this is now one of our favorite recipes. There are times when we eat it once a week.

I double this recipe when I make it. It makes enough to feed our family of 6 and then we have enough to eat for lunch for several days.

Here's the recipe I use...

2 pound whole wheat linguine or spaghetti
olive oil
2 heads of broccoli, trimmed and cut into small florets
leftover cooked chicken breast (this is optional, but my family likes it with meat in it)
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes
10 tablespoon tamari (or soy sauce)
1 bag or 2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
1 bag pine nuts, toasted
10 tablespoons of lemon
salt and pepper to taste


Cook the noodles separate. Toast the pine nuts in olive oil and set aside. Cook broccoli in olive oil in a skillet on the stove for about five minutes. You may need to add a little bit of water as the broccoli is cooking to keep it from burning. Add garlic and red chili flakes. Saute one minute. In a large bowl combine the cooked wheat noodles and broccoli mixture. Add the tamari, cheese and pine nuts. Add the lemon juice and lots of pepper. It's good when it's peppery. I don't add salt because the tamari or soy sauce is already salty.

Yum! Yay for broccoli!

1 comment:

mandi said...

sometimes i'll substitute plain whole milk yogurt for mayo. with a little lemon juice, some cloves, garlic, salt and pepper- it tastes like ranch dressing. you know, kind of...