Here’s how to clean and cook broccoli and how to best store them to have them available when needed.
Small tips will save you time in the kitchen, and when you return from work in the evening, you’ll have cooked broccoli ready in the fridge, even to eat pure with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Broccoli are rich in properties, they are rich in vitamin C, calcium, and fiber and have a high antioxidant power.
The simplest way is to boil them once cleaned and divided into florets, but in my opinion, the best way to preserve all their properties is to steam them, but don’t worry, I’ll explain everything below the photo.
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Below, I’ll leave you some broccoli recipes not to miss, and then right after the photo, we’ll discover how to cook and store broccoli!!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very economical
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4 People
- Cooking methods: Boiling, Microwave, Steaming
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Fall, Winter, and Spring
Ingredients for How to Clean and Cook Broccoli
- 1 broccoli (green)
- 1 clove garlic (optional)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 pinches salt
How to Clean and Cook Broccoli
When buying broccoli, make sure they are fresh, without bruises and without yellow inflorescences on the florets.
Remove the leaves (if any) and cut off the end of the stem, which you can use by peeling it first with a vegetable peeler and then dividing it into pieces.
Being the hardest part of the broccoli, it will need more time to cook, so cut it as small as you can.
After doing this, focus on the florets, gently detach them with a small sharp knife and place them in a colander.
Wash them gently under cold running water, and if you’re short on time, you can place them in a food bag in the fridge for up to 2 days in the vegetable drawer.
You can cook the broccoli in plenty of lightly salted water once it has reached a boil.
Then add the broccoli florets, wait for it to come back to a boil, lower the heat, and cook for 10 minutes if the florets are large or even less if they are small.
After that, drain them with a slotted spoon, place them in a baking dish, and season with salt, pressed garlic, and extra virgin olive oil.
You can use them for countless recipes or store them in the fridge covered with film for 2 days.
To steam broccoli, you can use the aluminum steamer basket or the plastic container for microwaving them.
Once cleaned, place them inside the steamer basket, add 2 fingers of room temperature water to the pot (or the microwave container).
Cover the pot with the lid and steam the broccoli for at least 12 minutes.
Extract them and season to taste.
A great idea is to toss them in a pan with a pat of butter and a pinch of salt, letting them sauté for a few minutes.
To pan-cook the broccoli once cleaned, heat a drizzle of oil in a wide pan with high sides.
Add the broccoli and turn on medium-low heat, let them flavor for 3 minutes while stirring.
Cover the broccoli halfway with water, cover the pan until the water reaches a boil.
Then uncover, raise the heat, and cook for 10 minutes, salt, and add the crushed or sliced garlic clove.
Further season with raw oil, testing with the tines of a fork to see if they are cooked just right.
Once your broccoli are cooked, you can store them for 2 days in the fridge well sealed in an airtight container.
When they are cooked and cold, you can place them in freezer trays with a lid and freeze them to use in pure form or make delicious recipes like the broccoli pizza.
With the large broccoli stem, you can prepare a delicious broccoli pesto.
Other Recipes
If you want to see other types of recipes, you can return to HOME
Did You Know
Up there, where the magnifying glass is, you can click on “SEARCH” 🔎, you can write the ingredient that when you open the fridge door, you find there, or in your pantry, you’ll have the opportunity to enter hundreds of recipes with the ingredient you’ve chosen.
YOU’LL BE AMAZED.
