Salad

A Plea to Save & Shave Your Broccoli Stems, Then Put Them in Salad

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December  7, 2017

The holidays would benefit from a playbook, wouldn't they? We partnered with Braun Household to arm you with resources for cooking like you wrote it yourself, with a little help from their MultiQuick 9 Hand Blender whose ACTIVEblade technology makes intimidating tasks a cinch.

It's no secret around these parts that broccoli stems are just as exciting to eat as their floret toppers—toss them with garlic and anchovies, make them into salad with hazelnuts and kale or feta and raisins, even turn them into a vegetarian marrow.

Photo by Rocky Luten

What I love about broccoli stems is their surprising tenderness, their versatility, their slight sweetness—to me, they taste more like what I imagine broccoli should than those ubiquitous florets. I'll often roast the stems in rustic coins or strips alongside their treetops, but when dinner's for more than just myself and my partner, it's nice to fuss over looks a bit more.

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Shaving the stems to reveal thin, ethereal strips and roasting the florets to toss with them offers a perfect base for many different types of dressings and additions, whether it's with a creamy dressing or something more vinaigrette-based. You could try any of the following combinations:

Creamy miso dressing + crushed peanuts + sesame seeds

Turmeric tahini dressing + crispy garlic slices

Basil buttermilk ranch dressing + fried shallots

Almond butter citrus sauce + sliced almonds + citrus zest

Simple, delightful vinaigrette + homemade dukkah

Horseradish dressing + mustard seeds + lemon zest

Red-cooked sauce + sliced scallions + sesame seeds

Spicy cilantro vinaigrette + chopped radish + lime zest

For this version, I used a method from Bon Appétit for a creamy miso dressing, where you mix a miso and tahini mixture together and then make a homemade mayonnaise to combine with them, giving it an airy texture, yet somehow a hefty weight. (I used a hand blender for the dressing.) Then, I mixed sesame seeds, crushed peanuts, and some very finely minced, non-roasted broccoli florets for some texture on top. The result is a many-layered salad with crunch, a raw and roasted medley of all that broccoli has to offer.

We partnered with Braun Household to arm you with resources for cooking during the holidays, from the simple to the complex, with a little help from their MultiQuick 9 Hand Blender.

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