I have a rather silly question (or at least I feel kind of silly asking it!): How do you cook broccoli rabe? and asparagus?

My fiance is picky as all heck, and in addition to regular broccoli and green beans, these are the only other veggies he's willing to eat. But I've never had either one, so I have no clue how to cook them! Help?

Tara

I don't know about the Broccoli Rabe but I ususally steam asparagus. You need to check the recipe sections here in the SBD thread. Also if that doesn't work you can type the name in the search engine and that should bring up hundreds of recipes. Good luck

I know how to cook broccoli Rabe!!!

I can finally help someone on this site!! Woo Hoo!! (very sad, I'm easily excited....but we won't go there)

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add 2 tbs of salt and drop in Broccoli Rabe. Let it sit for less than a minute. Drop into an ice bath to stop the cooking. This step will help remove some of the bitterness.

Now, heat 2 tbs olive oil in a saute pan. Add 1 garlic clove or if your not shy about garlic breath add two or three. To me, the more the better. Who cares, you and your fiance will both have garlic breath. Add Broccoli Rabe and saute 2-3 minutes until heated through.

Add some toasted pine nuts and grated parmesan at the very end. Viola! YUMMO!!!


For Asparagus, you can oven roast them. I take mushrooms, asparagus, and any other veggie and roughly chop. (you can leave whole, too) Put in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Chop some fresh rosemary and mix in w/ the veggies. Add some salt and pepper and mix to coat. Put on a baking sheet and bake at 375* for 40 minutes. Be sure to flip after 20 minutes. Enjoy!

During the summer or weather you don't mind grilling in, prepare the asparagus by snapping off the hard ends. They will naturally snap where they are supposed to! Keep whole and use the same olive oil and rosemary technicque above. Grill on a meduim heat until tender. These are awesome!!!

There's a TON of good ways to cook asparagus, a few of which have already been mentioned.

The way I cook it is to first clean it by washing it and then cutting off an inch or two of the hard stems. Then I fill a 10" frying pan about half full of water, throw some salt in, and bring to a boil. Then throw the asparagus in, and cover. They're done in like 3 minutes.

Toss with salt & pepper, or Italian dressing, or lemon juice, or whatever you want.

A note about asparagus - they are NOT supposed to be noodle limp - you want them slightly crunchy - like someone else mentioned - drop in boiling water for ONLY 3 mins - if they are really thick asparagus - maybe one minute more - really thin ones only need 2 mins.

I also saute' them - snap off the ends, cut into one inch pieces and saute in a bit of olive oil with onions and mushrooms.

I absolutely love asparagus with butter - so if I steam or boil them - I spray them with butter flavoured spray.

I also add them to whole wheat pasta (phase 2) with low fat alfredo sauce, shrimp and mushrooms.

Ok now I am getting hungry

Kim

I cook the Sesame Ginger Asparagus recipe in the cookbook quite often. I blanch it in water for 4-5 minutes (depending on the size). Then immediately cool under cold water. I add minced ginger, soy sauce and crushed red pepper and the asparagus and cook just until everything is heated. Yummy! Make sure you use reduced sodium soy sauce. This recipe also works really well with fresh green beans.

Heidi's Broccoli Rabe recipe is perfect! Yum! The only thing I would add is that you can make it more tender by peeling the ends a bit - got that tip from Jacques Pepin (in his Fast Food My Way series/book)-