Learn How To Cook Perfect Broccoli
Broccoli is available all year, with a peak season from October through April. Did you know that broccoli is a member of the cabbage family?
Check out What’s Cooking America’s favorite Broccoli Recipes.
Purchasing Broccoli:
Select a broccoli bunch that is dark green with tightly closed flowerets. The stalks should be firm, without leggy branches. The buds should be tightly closed and the leaves crisp. The buds should be dark green and may have a purplish tint to the edge.
If the florets are enlarged, opened, yellowish-green or wilted, then the broccoli is not fresh. Also the stronger broccoli smells, the older it is.
Preparing Broccoli:
Refrigerate, unwashed, in a plastic bag, for up to three days.
If you peel the tough fibrous outer layer off broccoli stems, it cooks faster, makes it esier to digest, and is more attractive.
Broccoli stems can be cooked in the same length of time as the flowerets if you make “X” incisions from top to bottom through stems.
How To Cook Broccoli:
Before cooking, wash, but do not soak the broccoli in cold water.
Broccoli can be blanched (boiled in a small amount of water), microwaved (with almost no water), steamed (on a rack above simmering water), or stir-fried. Be sure to cook broccoli quickly. Long cooking not only makes it soft and flavorless, but also destroys it’s rich nutrients.
Adding some salt helps to keep broccoli green.
Leaves are edible, but give a better appearance if cut off.
TIP: To remove the smell of broccoli cooking, throw a couple of thick chunks of bread into the cooking water.
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