Broccoli is my favorite vegetable by far. I love the crunch of broccoli, its slight bitterness, and how it can be good no matter its preparation – boiled, fried, baked, roasted, or raw.
My latest preparation favorite has been to roast broccoli – which works particularly well when I am pre-heating a baking stone for pizza or bread. It also is a great hands-off approach for fresh or raw broccoli because once it's in the oven, you only need to turn it over once before it's ready to serve.
However, for summertime when I don't want to have a hot oven on for that long, I wanted to find a new approach that wouldn't produce as much heat in my kitchen but also be relatively simple to prepare.
Enter Cook's Illustrated Pan-Roasted Broccoli, which really is the perfect weeknight approach. Limited prep and hands-on time, and still results in a nicely seared, crunchy and flavorful broccoli.
To start, you cut the broccoli, and while the oil in the pan heats up, mix some water, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
After the pan is hot, first add the broccoli stems and then the broccoli florets a few minutes later. Get them all nice and browned on the bottom, before adding in the water mixture and immediately covering the pan. The broccoli then steams for a few minutes, and then season to taste. That's it – the broccoli is now ready to serve! Yum!
Leave a Reply