28 Tasty Broccoli Recipes to Try (2024)

FAQs

How do restaurants make broccoli taste so good? ›

How do restaurants make broccoli taste so good? As with everything made by chefs, they have unexpected (read: unhealthy) additions to their meals — mostly butter, oil and heaps of salt. An excellent tip for the perfect broccoli is the blanching step.

Lemon pepper pairs well as a simple seasoning, as does garlic and sesame oil. Saute broccoli with a little red pepper flakes, couple of minutes add chopped garlic and s & p. Lemon juice next with a little water. Our family favorite way to serve broccoli.

Steaming broccoli is quick and easy, and it's considered one of the healthiest ways to prepare the vegetable. Instead of submerging the florets and stem into boiling water or roasting them in the oven, the broccoli is placed in a steamer basket over simmering water and covered with a lid.

Chinese restaurants often incorporate garlic, ginger, and soy sauce to add depth and flavor to the broccoli. You can also add a dash of sesame oil or a sprinkle of red pepper flakes for an added kick.

Restaurants serve amazingly green and crunchy Chinese broccoli because they use huge amounts of boiling water.

Immediatley before cooking, soak your broccoli, head down, in cold, salted water (1 tsp salt to 8 cups water) for 5 minutes. Any critters will float to the top where you can rescue them or allow them to suffer a salty death.

Fill a large bowl with 2 ⅔ cups cold or warm water and ⅓ cup white vinegar. Allow it to soak for 2 minutes, then dump the broccoli into a colander. Rinse the vinegar-treated broccoli very well under running water.

To avoid soggy broccolis try steaming it for 2 minutes and check the texture, if required cook for a minute more but not more than that. After this, you put the boiled broccoli into ice water, the constant shock will make them crispy.

In conclusion, the current study clearly shows that nutrient and health-promoting compounds in broccoli are significantly affected by domestic cooking. All cooking treatments, except steaming, caused great losses of chlorophyll and vitamin C. Only boiling and stir-frying/boiling caused the loss of total carotenoids.

Broccoli is a good calcium source, essential for maintaining strong bones and preventing osteoporosis [19,20]. It also contains vitamin K, which is essential for bone health. Broccoli is low in calories but high in fiber, making it a filling food that can help control weight and promote a healthy metabolism [21].

How to make broccoli taste good without adding calories? ›

Healthiest Way to Cook Broccoli

Lightly sauteed with garlic and a splash of water. It's that simple. Cooking broccoli in this way retains most of its colour, nutritional value along with that crunch that results in a delicious side dish that even my youngest and pickiest eater enjoys.

Steamed broccoli may be one of the healthiest ways to cook broccoli because it's quick and nutrients and vitamins won't be lost in the cooking water, as can be the case with boiled broccoli.

Broccoli has a high insoluble fibre content and requires more time to digest. The best time to consume broccoli is around breakfast or lunch so that your body has time to absorb it. You should eat it often as it is a green vegetable with various nutritious benefits. One can eat broccoli 2-3 times a week to lose weight.

Broccoli has a fantastic nutritional profile that offers plenty of potential health benefits. It's rich in fiber, vitamin C, and antioxidants ( 1 ). Broccoli can be prepared in numerous ways, including sautéed, steamed, boiled, or roasted, but it can also be served raw in salads or with dips.

Restaurants often use a variety of techniques and ingredients to create complex and flavorful dishes, including salt, herbs, spices, and fats. They may also use sugar or other sweeteners to balance out sour or bitter flavors or to enhance the natural sweetness of certain ingredients.

However, one reason that vegetables always taste better at a restaurant is that chefs there don't hold back on using oil to boost flavor. They often use oodles of butter, oil, or bacon fat to coat veggies fried on the stove and give them an umami appeal.

Immediately drain it in a colander, and serve. If you aren't serving it immediately, or if it's going into a salad to be served cold, dip it into an ice bath. This stops the cooking process and ensures that the broccoli stays that gorgeous green color.

Steaming broccoli is a fast and healthy way to cook this nutritious vegetable. It preserves broccoli's vibrant green color and fresh flavor without the addition of oil. While boiled broccoli is often soggy, steamed broccoli is characteristically crisp-tender.