ideas for broccoli & cauliflower

Lugh_Chronain

Incidentally, if anyone is interested, the recipe for the Japanese-style stir fry is as follows:

Found on Abel & Cole's website. Inspired by my sister after visiting her last Christmas, she tried a few of their recipes which turned out really well.

225g carrots, cut into small 2.5cm strips
225g Broccoli
100g mushrooms, cut into quarters
1 tablespoons sunflower oil - cheapest appears to be from Lidl. Can't remember how much though.
1 teaspoon grated fresh root ginger
Cooked noodles to serve - I tend to get my noodles also from Lidl. About 49p for 250g. For all other ingredients try searching mySupermarket or HotUKDeals.

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sake, or dry sherry
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon water
2 teaspoons sugar - You may want to reduce the amount of sugar if cooking for one. Use a desert spoon instead of a tablespoon for all the above ingredients if you are.

First mix all of the ingredients for the sauce together, and then leave aside. Lightly steam the broccoli until just tender. Set this aside also. Heat the oil in a large fry pan. Add the grated ginger and the mushrooms and stir-fry for one minute. Add the carrots and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Pour in the sauce mixture and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat. Cover and leave to simmer for around 5 minutes or until the carrots are cooked. Finally, add the broccoli and heat through. Arrange the noodles in bowls with the carrots and broccoli. Spoon some of the hot sauce on top. Serve immediately.

Lugh_Chronain

lisa26 wrote: »

Also, if we have cauliflower in our house we cook the smaller inner leaves along with the actual cauliflower and eat them with the rest of the meal. they're delicious and we tend to fight over who gets them if there aren't many!!

I do try do this but mostly end up with more outer leaves than inner ones. Does depend on how they prepare the cauliflower though I guess.

Thanks Lisa

Anoneemoose

Hi all,

I have some broccoli and cauli florets that need using and am trying to think of something I can do to put them in the freezer.

If I make broccoliflower cheese, will that freeze ok?

Or is it best/possible to steam them and freeze?

If anyone has any other ideas, they will be gratefully received!

Ladyluck1

It freezes fine, no need to blanch etc. though you can of you want.
I would probably make soup/cauliflower and broccoli cheese with it though

Jacksmummy

Not sure if you can freeze cauli cheese, I've never done find it easier to make the cheese sauce on the day, although I'm sure it can be done.

you can freeze just the veg, I myself never blanch any veg including caulis and brocolli and they taste no different imo.

How about a soup?

trolleyrun

You can freeze broccoflower cheese, no problem. You could make it into any gratin or soup and also freeze

Lilyplonk

Broccoli and Cauli Soup

Broccoli and Cauli Bake

oops cross posted .

Anoneemoose

Thank you. If I just put them in the freezer, will I need to let them defrost before using or can I steam them straight from frozen?

clarryd

Yes you can freeze broccoli and cauliflower cheese. Make sure that you have cooked the veg first and add cheese sauce leave to go cold and freeze use within 1 month and you can heat it back up from frozen in microwave when required.

Hope this helps.

Liz_M

Hi, I hope this is the right place to ask this! I made a roast yesterday and steamed a whole thing (is it called a head?) of broccoli because it needed using up. I'm the only one who eats it but the plan was to either have some more today on a plate of roast leftovers, or make it into a soup (I like broccoli and stilton soup but if I bought stilton I'd end up wasting the rest of it so was going to experiment with cheddar!).

Only problem is the broccoli was horrible! It was really bitter and I couldn't even eat what I'd put on my plate (I hate leaving food!).

I've never had bitter broccoli before. It was about 10 days old but looked ok to me so I'm not sure if it tastes bitter because it was off? It isn't purple sprouting broccoli or anything, just looks like standard broccoli the only difference is it was from a veg box... All veg I've had from the veg box has been nicer but I've noticed some of it seems to go off in a different way to supermarket veg! Supermarket broccoli seems to go pale and the little seedy bits go a bit yellow looking after a while.... this hadn't gone like that at all... some of the seedy bits might have gone a little bit dark but I can't really remember how dark they were on the day it arrived so not sure! It definitely didn't smell and wasn't slimy or fuzzy at all!

I wasn't sure what to do with the horrible cooked broccoli so it's currently in the fridge. I don't know whether to just give up and bin it, or whether to try making it into a soup and hope that tastes nicer? I don't want to waste the broccoli if it can be saved, but on the other hand don't want to waste other soup ingredients and/or make myself ill (just recovering from being ill as it is!).

Thanks in advance for any tips!

(I've also got left over cooked cauliflower which tasted fine and I might make it into cauliflower cheese later!)