My
usual approach to serving a vegetable side dish is to keep it very simple—often
just steaming the vegetable--and concentrate my cooking energy on the other
parts of the meal. I recently found this recipe, which gives a big flavor boost
while still being simple to prepare. This will now be a standard! The original recipe was for broccoli florets,
but the next night I made it with a mixture of green beans and snow peas, and
that was also great. The first night, I
minced fresh garlic cloves. The second
night I used minced garlic from a jar, and I didn't notice a difference. The first night, I toasted the nuts; the
second night I didn't bother, and didn't notice the difference. I originally made
this recipe because it called for hazelnuts, and I happened to have some on
hand, but I'm confident it would also be good with other nuts (I'd try pecans,
cashews, or pistachios, or walnuts).
BROCCOLI (or
other green vegetable) WITH SCALLION DRESSING
AND HAZELNUTS (or other nuts)
adapted from The
New American Plate Cookbook
4 servings
4
cups small broccoli florets (or green beans, snow peas, or other green
vegetable)
1 T.
toasted sesame oil
3
scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
3
garlic cloves, finely minced (from a jar also fine)
1 T.
soy sauce
3 T.
coarsely chopped toasted (or not) hazelnuts (or other nuts)
Bring
a large pot of water to boil. Add the broccoli (or other vegetable) and cook
for 3-4 minutes, until cooked to your liking. Drain the broccoli and rinse it
with cold water to stop the cooking process.
In a
medium bowl, combine the sesame oil, scallions, garlic, and soy sauce. Add the
broccoli, toss well, and top with the nuts.
Serve at room temperature.
