I like making sort of shortcut instant “cream of” vegetable soups.
Heat some stock, either chicken or vegetable.
When hot, throw in some frozen broccoli, cauliflower, and/or spinach, and/or some fresh carrots and/or onions.
When the veggies are bright in color but hot through, through in a chunk of cream cheese (use the fat free kind if you want, it works!)
Heat just long enough to melt the cream cheese.
Eat.
My favorite is a combination of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrot, but you can use nearly any vegetable for it.
Broccoli is the best in stirfry with a thin sauce. The flowerets capture the sauce so each bite is a burst of flavor. Stirfry onion, garlic, carrots, celery, zucchini, broccoli, and add a few tablespoons of your favorite prepapred stirfry sauce (teriaki sauce, ginger sauce, peanut sauce, soy sauce and sherry, whatever trips your trigger). Turn down the heat a tad and slap the lid on and cook for a couple of minutes. The lid keeps the moisture in, making a nice sauce. You can thicken the sauce slightly with cornstarch or arrowroot if you like, though usually I don’t think it needs it, and if you make it too thick it’ll just coat the outside of the broccoli, which kind of defeats the purpose.
One of my favorite ways to have spinach is to toss it with some sesame oil in a hot pan until it’s just wilted, add some sesame seeds, and the drizzle it with soy sauce (preferably tamari).
I tend to steam things by placing them in a colander or sieve over a pot of boiling water, which, if I’m being super-efficient, contains the rice, noodles or potatoes that are forming another part of the same meal.
This is despite the fact that I own an electric steamer…which is not only a pain to assemble, use and clean, but also uses all of the available counter-top space in my tiny kitchen.
I steam broccoli until it goes a bright, fresher green, is slightly tender and hot all the way through and spinach until it just wilts.
Personally I’m a big garlic fan, it goes on everything. If you can’t be bothered to chop or crush fresh garlic, you can even use those dried garlic flakes.
The BEST combo is garlic, sesame oil (just a drop or two),black pepper and a little lemon juice. If you’re adventurous it’s even better with a little fish sauce (nam pla) or a minute bit of shrimp paste (bla chan) added to the above.
Those flavour work well with either spinach or broccoli, but best of all with a type of chinese green leaf which my Malaysian friends called “kan kong”, I don’t know what it’s actually known as.
This garlic/sesame/lemonjuice/shrimp paste is apparently the traditional Malaysian way to cook leafy greens and it tasted so good when I ate it at their house that it is now my usual method of serving spinach and broccoli!
Regarding broccoli, nothing enhances it in my book (and my wife’s, since she met me) than steaming it then tossing it with a tiny amound of butter and a lot of toasted almond flakes. So simple, but so tasty.
Just what I like, it’s OK if it doesn’t work for you–
Broccoli- Steam or lightly boil it, then drizzle with this sauce:
2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of a light oil
1 tablespoon of regular mustard
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
Whip with a whip or fork.
Spinach- Lightly boil with a teaspoon of baking powder, then serve with this vinagerette:
1/4 cup white or cider vinegar
1/8 cup water
4 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
