Heart healthy and nutrient rich yes, a favorite of meat and potatoes eating men? Not always. Broccoli is one of those vegetables that people love or hate. Just like other greens and Brussels sprouts (which you know I love love love!), broccoli can, I firmly believe, be dressed up to make people like it. The broccoli dish I made a few nights ago is so delicious I would dare to say it is even fancy and fun enough for a special Valentine’s Day meal at home.
I started with a whole bag of broccoli florets, cutting the larger ones so that the florets were all uniform in size. I also roughly chopped a bit of red onion, about 1/2 cup. The onions went straight into a sizzling frying pan, coated well with olive oil, and they cooked until softened, just a couple of minutes. I then added in the broccoli, gave it a stir, and let it go.
While the onions and broccoli were cooking, I chopped three slices of prosciutto that were left over from the chicken saltimbocca I made on Sunday.
To cook the prosciutto, I pushed the broccoli and onions to one side of the pan and put the prosciutto into a little bit of oil. After another couple of minutes, I mixed the prosciutto in with the broccoli, cooked the whole mixture for a few more minutes, and served.
Excuse the appearance of this dinner. It was a late night for the hubby, and this was all I could muster feeling sore and tired from my long run. He loved it though!
The prosciutto provides some really nice salty flavors, and broccoli, when cooked just long enough, actually can have a little bit of a melt-in-your-mouth quality to it. This is probably not THE healthiest way to eat your veggies, but it is a great way to sneak something green into a menu without sacrificing flavor.
I still have not come up with a Valentine’s Day menu, but I am beyond excited about Valentine’s Day. I’ll definitely be spending some time this weekend looking through blogs and magazines for ideas for a special menu!
Do you have any hints for getting veggie haters to eat their vegetables?
Tags: broccoli, Food, prosciutto, recipe, recipes, side dish, vegetables
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God bless you for loving veggies so. I hate ’em. My mother in law does make a broccoli dish that is palatable… she steams the broccoli then drenches them with lemon and evoo and allows them to come to room temperature. I have to say, it isn’t bad! Spinach, hidden in my smoothie, is usually all the vegetable I can stomach in a day.
~ GGG
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I absolutely LOVE this dish and totally agree that there is nothing better than that “melt in your mouth” feeling of proscuitto. I think adding delicious fat like bacon or proscuitto definitely helps make veggies more flavorful!
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It’s definitely a way to get someone to eat veggies even if it’s not the healthiest. I love it. Although, I try adding bacon to brussels sprouts and Jeff still won’t eat them!
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Have you shredded the sprouts and then saute them with the bacon? Chestnuts are really good too in this dish! When they’re shredded they don’t taste the same which appeals to some people; my picky sister will eat them this way and she usually only eats zucchs, carrots & green beans.
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We LOVE vegetables…so no, I don’t have any great ideas! We like them boiled, steamed, sauteed, stir-fried, raw, baked, mashed, grilled. You name it. =)
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Broccoli is actually my favorite veggie, but all the goodies you added would definitely help my hubby enjoy it more 🙂
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My husband already adores broccoli in all its forms, he would love this!!
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OH – i love this idea. We usually just roast or steam broccoli, but this sounds like a delicious twist.
Luckily, Rafe is pretty adventurous when it comes to veggies – I don’t think I could tolerate someone who was aggressively anti-veg.
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