Broccoli with Ginger -- a new friend for the king mushrooms

I know I mentioned I was on a ginger kick. Well, this is a kick with kick. Two things I  like about ginger: it tastes great and doesn't have to be well cooked. (My chief problem with onions and garlic is for me they are undigestible unless very well cooked. Basically, cooked into utter submission. Bad experience. True story.) Ginger is also great for you, and seems to be helpful for any number of small ailments. It shows potent anti-microbial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal properties, as well as helping with congestion, and of course tummy trouble. 

But we cook with it because we really like the way it tastes.

In my house, we eat a lot of broccoli because it is a vegetable we can all agree on, and both my husband and son love it. There is more controversy and less accord with many other vegetables, including cauliflower, kale, swiss chard, spinach. Actually, with pretty much every other vegetables, except perhaps sweet peas in the pod. So, we eat A LOT of broccoli.

My favourite way of preparing broccoli is to saute it over low heat in a little coconut oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. Brilliant and delicious. Adding a little ginger gives a yummy change of pace while still keeping to the comfort zone of sauteed broccoli.

I use frozen organic broccoli a lot in the winter because the fresh organic broccoli looks tired and smells bad a lot of the time. Loblaws carries a line of organic frozen vegetables that are reasonable in price, and pretty much always in stock. I believe it's called 'Green Organics'. This frozen broccoli tastes fantastic -- it has that ideal and elusive sweet broccoli taste -- and keeps a tender crisp texture provided you don't over cook it, of course). You can use fresh broccoli, if you would like. Just clean it, trim the woody sheath off the stalk, and cut the stalk and crown into bite sized pieces.

ingredients:

2 tbsp coconut oil

500 g package of frozen broccoli, defrosted and cut into bite sized pieces

3/8 - 1/2 tsp sea salt

a touch of black pepper

freshly grated ginger to taste

directions:

1. heat the coconut oil in a pan on low heat

2. add the broccoli and toss with the oil, and sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper

3. saute the broccoli until it is done to your liking

4. add the ginger, and toss until evenly distributed

5. serve as a side whenever you need a little green in your life