Finer Italian restaurants in the U.S. used to serve a side dish of broccoli rabe with garlic that I really took a liking to when I lived there many years ago. It is a bit bitter but delicious. I have never been able to get broccoli rabe here (though I found broccolini once) so I try to replicate a bit of the taste with regular supermarket broccoli. This is a perfect side dish to a roasted chicken or perhaps a pan-fried porkchop. Quick, easy and tasty…
To make, wash some broccoli and slice into long florets 
with some of the stems included. If you want a nice texture, blanch these for about 30 seconds and plunge into cold water to stop the cooking and retain the vibrant green color. Then heat up a pan, add some olive oil, throw in several whole cloves of garlic and brown lightly, add some dried chilli pepper flakes and add the broccoli and stir fry for a couple of miutes, tossing to mix up the broccoli, oil and spices. Season with salt and just as it finishes sprinkle with some fresh lemon juice. Serve hot. I often skip the blanching step as I kind of like my broccoli crunchy and undercooked.
21 Responses
This looks so good I can smell it already. Wasn’t a big fan of broccoli when I was younger. When I read about its health benefits and tasted it, I got hooked. Now I look for it all the time…like right now! The lemon juice is new to me, a must-try next time. Thanks, MM.
Also a great way to serve asparagus.
those garlic cloves look yummy!!!!
Masarap ding budburan ng BEEF (tidbit)para lang sa mahilig sa karne. manyaman talaga yan! thanks MM.
I’ve also added some anchovies, just enough to flavor the dish.
mila, as a salt-lover i think the anchovy idea sounds fantastic! not that i’m still on the south-beach diet but this definitely sounds south-beach friendly (for those of us making a last ditch effort to get ready for beach season)…
wow, how timely, MM. i’m gonna have grilled chicken wings tonight and i’m gonna have your broccoli dish on the side. Thanks.
I love broccoli and garlic. Though I’ve never gone beyond the usual meat with broccoli. I think I’m going to try cooking this side dish sometime soon. Thanks! Thanks!
Hello MM, I just made another broccoli side dish last night myself. This one looks fantastic…think I’ll take your suggestion of pairing it with pork chops. Thank you.
Thank you, too for sharing your family’s ensaimada recipe which I tried yesterday – perfect! Maraming salamat…I followed yours, and your sister’s instructions to the letter and had no problems at all.
Broccoli is one of my favorite vegetables. I remember I liked it with chiz whiz when I was much younger. hehehe. Thankfully I got over the chiz whiz thing but not the broccoli.
MM, I was fortunate enough to get a sample of romanesco broccoli a few weeks ago. I made it into a simple pasta with just pancetta, e.v. olive oil and some garlic, if I remember correctly. Doesn’t taste much different from regular broccoli but it looks stunning. Any suggestions? Thanks!
mmmm.. broccoli… beef with broccoli.. i’ll go with the florets over the stems.. the best pa rin if you make tempura with it!
MM, i tried to email you through your site but it says injection error. I apologize since this is off-topic but I just want to ask where I can buy the ff:
1. whole vanilla beans
2. bourbon vanilla extract
3. (if you have any idea) the plant itself vanilla planifolia
thanks…
juls, seriously, are you based in Afghanistan? If you are, geez, sourcing that stuff might be difficult, no? At any rate, I bring my whole vanilla beans from the U.S. whenever I go on a trip every couple of years or have relatives sent it. They are in really small vials. I do the same for the real vanilla extract. Real vanilla extract is SUPERB compared to the artificial. The vanilla plant itself, I have NO idea where to get, but I did once see it and bearing a bean no less on the roadside on a trip to Bali once and we were in the highlands on the side of a volcano. I just looked out the window and voila, a vanilla bean…or so I thought it was… At any rate V. planifolia is native to South America and is a vine that thrives in tropical forests. V. tahitensis is what is more commonly seen in the South Pacific and Hawaii. According to my trusty Alan Davidson book, 80% of the global supply of V. planifolia (also known as bourbon vanilla) is grown in Madagascar, the Comoro Islands and Reunion.
I found vanilla pods at Chef’s Exchange in Rockwell, also at Rustan’s Glorietta. They also sell Pure Vanilla Extract (not the chemical version) for P700+ at Rustan’s Glorietta. I can’t remember the brand name, but the flavor was intense. Worth every peso.
Mila, thanks for that…I learned something good today…
MM: heheheh… i doubt it if i’ll be permitted to blog in Afghanistan :) It’s a wonder why the Philippine doesn’t have a vanilla industry wherein in Indonesia, it’s a big exporter of the product.
Mila: Thanks so much. I’ll drop by there sa Rustans very soon. The synthetic vanilla extracts cannot compare to the orig. (I’ll learned pala why those extracts smell like alcohol, it’s because vanillin (the synthetic extract) should be placed in ethanol daw)
cheers!
Mr. MM thanks for this recipe. I got brocolli in my fridge and we’re sked to cook it today, so timing. This blog of yours is so educational. I’m so glad I knew this website since I’m immigrating to US in a couple of weeks. This is my link to our homeland.
In our family we like like both the stem and florets. Make sure to use a peeler and peel the outer skin off the stems, and sliced diagonally. They are great with oyster sauce too.
To make this this already perfect broccoli dish even more perfect, one must add lemon zest! If any of you have roasted garlic on hand, that stuff is great on this too. If you can get lucky and find broccolini again, I think this is its best preparation.
Thanks to MM and all who make this site extra interesting. Next to cooking itself, I love reading about cooking and food, so I love visiting this site. Where else can you get vanilla mentioned in the same breath as broccoli with garlic? Great stuff!
MM I tried the salpicao of tequila joe’s before and I fell inlove with their melt in your mouth garlic cloves. I read somewhere taht you have to slowly roast it in an oven but I always end up burning it. any suggestions?
ricobaby, get a large bulb of garlic and slice off the top so that you remove just a bit of the garlic meats. Then place in a ceramic plate (or one with a cover) and drizzle with olive oil and place in oven at say 300F or higher and wait until soft…I hope that works…
Hi MM,
My 2 cents worth on the roasted garlic query by ricobaby: as you said, chop off the top (about 1/4 or 1/5 of the whole garlic size, just to expose the “meat”). Wrap in foil tightly and pop into a preheated 300-350F, no higher, for about 1 hour. Prick to test if soft, otherwise, keep for another 15 minutes, sealed in the foil still. To seal in foil is important otherwise the garlic will burn, caramelize and harden.