RECIPE: Eat Your Greens, Like Broccolini–It’s Different From Broccoli & Broccoli Rabe
 [1] Sautéed broccolini with lemon and garlic (photo courtesy eMeals).
|
Not into green beer and green bagels? A healthy green food for a St. Patrick’s Day meal is this Sautéed Lemon-Garlic Broccolini from eMeals, a recipe subscription service with 25 different meal plans for every diet (there’s a 14-day free trial). Set a piece of your favorite protein on top or to the side: a fish fillet, sliced steak or chicken, shrimp, or another favorite. Ingredients 1. HEAT the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the broccolini, garlic, and red pepper flakes; sauté for 4 minutes. 2. ADD the broth. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook 6 minutes or until tender. 3. STIR in the lemon rind, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Sprinkle on the chile and serve. Broccolini is not a young growth of broccoli, although it looks like small broccoli florets atop long, slender stems. Rather, broccolini is a hybrid of broccoli and gai-lan (kai-lan), a Chinese chard, both cultivar groups of Brassica oleracea, the powerful cruciferous vegetable family. It can be eaten cooked or raw, and is sweeter than broccoli florets. Though much more expensive than broccoli, there is little waste. The stems don’t even need to be trimmed. In the late 1980s, breeders at Japan’s Sakata Seed company crossed broccoli and gai-lan and named the new vegetable asparation. Sakata partnered with a Mexican grower, and then with Mann Packing in California, to grow asparation. Mann gave it a more consumer-friendly name: broccolini. |
|
|
To add some confusion, broccolini was given different names to appear at retail, including brocolette, brocoletti, and sweet baby broccoli. If you’re facing down these names, just remember: tall, slender stems + few or no leaves = broccolini. Broccoli rabe, with which broccolini is often confused, has a profusion of leaves at the top. Here’s how to end the confusion between… Broccolini, Broccoli & Broccoli Rabe Like broccoli and broccoli rabe, broccolini is low in calories: about 35 calories for six stems. It is a good source of calcium, folate, iron, potassium and vitamins A and C (100% DV). Treat broccolini as you would broccoli, broccoli raab or asparagus: For a garnish, your favorites work nicely: crumbled bacon, pine nuts, seasoned breadcrumbs, etc. |
||
