The Breakfast Challenge – Cheesy Broccoli Omelette

by Linda on October 6, 2011

This recipe is a riff on Mollie Katzen’s Enchanted Broccoli Forest, or at least it owes some heritage to that inspired combination of broccoli, lemon, eggs and cheese – which you wouldn’t think would work but it so does.

I’m still picking lots of broccoli side shoots every day and using every broccoli recipe in the repertoire to get through them. Luckily broccoli is a super food and you can’t eat too much of it –  huge amounts of calcium, folate, antioxidants (including one that’s good for protecting against macular degeneration), and  cancer preventative phytochemicals.

I remember when I first started gardening being amazed how productive broccoli is.  The supermarkets only ever sell the first big head, but that’s just a fraction of the harvest. The broccoli is the unopened flowers, and the plant is trying to get them open and fertilised by the bees, so it can set seed. Once the first head is cut, the plant has another go at flowering with side shoots.  So long as I can keep cutting, they will keep trying.  The buds get smaller and smaller, but you can keep them going for ages. The small buds are perfect for recipes like this.

The Recipe:

Two big serves.

To do this weekday morning fast…

  • Chop two cups of broccoli into flowerettes.
  • Put a medium sized heavy frypan on to heat up with a little olive oil.
  • Chop the white part of two spring onions and add to the pan.
  • Stir for a minute, then add the broccoli, then most of the spring onion greens.
  • Squeeze in
    • the juice of quarter of a lemon
    • a good grinding of black pepper.
    • and add just a dessertspoon of water
  • Put the lid on the pan and let the broccoli cook in its own steam for about 3 minutes, till it has just lost it’s crunch.
  • Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, blend
    • 3 eggs,
    • 3 big dessertspoons of low fat cottage cheese,
    • and just a dessertspoon of milk.
  • Give the broccoli a stir, then pour the egg mix evenly over it.  Turn the heat down low and put the lid back on. Cook for about 3 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, put some toast on to cook, turn the griller on to heat up, and grate a little sharp cheddar cheese.
  • Sprinkle the cheese over the top and put the pan under the griller.  Grill until the cheese is melted and golden.

(The Breakfast Cereal Challenge is my 2011 challenge – to the overpackaged, overpriced, mostly empty packets of junk food marketed as “cereal”. I’m going for a year’s worth of breakfast recipes, based on in-season ingredients, quick and easy enough to be a real option for weekdays, and  preferable, in nutrition, ethics, andtaste.  The Muesli Bar Challenge was my 2010 Challenge.)

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Cream of Broccoli Soup

by Linda on September 6, 2011

It’s absolute peak of broccoli season here.  The oldest of my plants are all still bearing little side shoots so long as I can keep up with them, and the youngest are just starting to bear their first large head.  I’m picking a basketful like this every day.

I love broccoli and look forward to this season.  Homegrown fresh broccoli has a sweet pepperiness that it seems to lose if it is stored, which is a pity because it is so good for you –  huge amounts of calcium, folate, antioxidants (including one that’s good for protecting against macular degeneration), and  cancer preventative phytochemicals.

This slightly cheesy cream of broccoli soup is a good way to use lots of it, and if you make it with very fresh broccoli, a way to get even vegetable suspicious kids to learn to love it.

The Recipe:

For 2 large, dinner sized servings

  • In a largish pot, sauté 1 onion finely chopped in a bit of olive oil.
  • As soon as it starts to soften add 4 cloves of crushed garlic
  • Then add 300 grams (about 4 to 5 packed cups) of fairly finely chopped broccoli (flowerettes and stalks)
  • Cook, stirring for a couple of minutes, then add
    • 2 bay leaves
    • 2 teaspoons seeded mustard
    • 3 cups of skim or semi-skim milk
  • The milk will rise when it comes to the boil (hence the largish pot).  Simmer for a few minutes until the broccoli is just tender.   Don’t overcook it.
  • Fish out the bay leaves and tip the rest into a blender and blend until it is quite smooth.
  • Tip back into the pot. Use another cup of milkto rinse out the blender and add it, along with
    • 3 or 4 good dessertspoons of low fat cottage cheese
    • 2 teaspoons of light soy sauce or tamari.
  • Heat the soup up again, stirring, just enough to melt the cheese through. Taste and add more soy sauce or tamari to taste.
  • Serve with a sprinkle of finely grated parmesan on top and fresh crusty bread to dip. A swirl of  cream looks really decorative in it.

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Tofu and Winter Vegetable Lunchbox

by Linda on August 23, 2011

My partner’s favourite lunch is microwaved tofu and vegetables with chili (he’s a chili fiend).  I’m not a huge fan of either tofu or microwaves, but hey, I’m not purist. It’s mostly garden vegetables, and I am a huge fan of them!

I’m not a huge fan of tofu because soy beans contain a number of compounds that can cause health problems,  it takes a fair amount of processing to get tofu from soy beans, and they are one of the most genetically modified and unsustainably farmed crops on the planet.   Nutrisoy and Soyco are a couple of brands that don’t use genetically modified soy beans.

I’m not much of a fan of microwaves either, mostly because they have such limited uses for so much consumer electronic junk.  But Lewie has a microwave at his work and it is an easy, no mess way to cook lunch, especially if you have an inactive office job.

The Recipe:

Part 1: The Dressing/Marinade

I make a jar of this because we use it for all sorts of dishes.

In a jar, shake together:

  • 1 part olive oil
  • 1 part lemon juice
  • 1 part soy sauce
  • 1 part sweet chili sauce or chili jam
  • a clove or two of garlic crushed
  • a similar amount of ginger crushed
  • a little sesame oil or tahini

This dressing or marinade will keep in the fridge for weeks.  Use a few dessertspoons over the vegetables in the lunchbox.  They will toss themselves on the way.

Part 2: Tofu

Fry some cubes of tofu in a little oil till browned.

Part 3: The Vegetables

This is just simply chopped garden vegetables in season.

  • Chinese cabbage
  • Silver Beet
  • Celery
  • Carrot
  • Broccoli
  • Cauliflower
  • Snow Peas
  • Red Onion

(I have a zucchini plant surviving in my garden, but really it shouldn’t be in season.)

Assembling and Cooking:

Vegies and cooked tofu in a microwavable lunch box with a lid, with a couple of spoonfuls of dressing.

At work at lunch time shake the lunchbox to cover everything in dressing and put the whole thing in the microwave for 4 to 5 minutes (more or less, depending on how crunchy you like your vegetables.)

Feel so glad you brought lunch rather than succumbed to a burger.

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The First of the Season’s Broccoli

July 8, 2011

The first of the season’s broccoli.  Not quite the first – I’ve cut a couple of heads early, before they were really ready – but the first full size head.  This is Calibri variety, and it will keep bearing side shoots for a couple of months.  The early ones will be nearly as big as [...]

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Greens as Themselves

September 9, 2010

Cooking vegetables in my mother’s generation meant boiling them until they gave up.  I am an eldest child, my partner is a youngest, so his mother was a generation older.  Her version of chokos was boiled until they liquified. No wonder  as kids we weren’t great fans of vegetables! It is amazing how much food [...]

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