Mary Berry’s tip for cooking broccoli and cauliflower is a game-changer, as one simple method instead of boiling preserves nutrients and enhances flavour
Broccoli has never been my favourite veg – boiling it always left it tasting utterly uninspiring, but lately, I’ve been roasting my florets, and honestly, it’s transformed them. That said, when it comes to cauliflower, I’d only ever boiled it. Then Mary Berry let slip that the secret to nailing both vegetables is a simple stir-fry with olive oil.
In her brilliant Mary Berry Everyday cookbook, she wrote: “Making a change from boiled vegetables, this is quick to do and very tasty. Cooked like this, the broccoli and cauliflower retain a nice crunch too.”
Boiling broccoli and cauliflower essentially robs them of their character as their flavour seeps into the water, rendering them tasteless or even harsh. It also leaves the veg waterlogged and nutritionally depleted, with precious vitamins dissolving away during the boiling process.
In contrast, stir-frying broccoli and cauliflower over fierce heat caramelises their inherent sugars, delivering a far superior nutty or umami quality, reports the Express.
I discovered that switching up my cauliflower cooking technique this time made it crunchier, tastier, and even more nutritious, since stir-frying locks in far more goodness.
I actually ended up preferring this stir-fry approach for broccoli over my usual oven-roasted version with lemon juice, garlic and parmesan.
Ingredients
- Half a head of broccoli
- Half a head of cauliflower
- One onion, finely sliced
- Two garlic cloves, crushed
- One tablespoon of runny honey
- Salt and pepper
Method
To kick things off, I sliced the cauliflower and broccoli into the tiniest florets I could manage, ditching any leaves or stalks along the way.
I diced the onions and crushed the garlic cloves before getting stuck into the actual cooking.
After that, I warmed the oil in a sizeable pan until it was piping hot. I then tossed in the onions and let them sizzle away for two to three minutes over a high flame.
Next came the broccoli, cauliflower and garlic, which I stir-fried for another two to three minutes until they began taking on a lovely golden colour. Worth noting – you might need to add a splash more oil as the veg can catch and burn quite easily.
I popped a lid on the pan, dialled down the heat and left everything to cook for a further 15 minutes, despite Mary Berry suggesting just three, as mine were still rather firm.
Once the lid came off, I gave the vegetables a quick fry for a few more minutes until they softened a touch, whilst keeping their satisfying crunch.
As a finishing flourish, I drizzled the veg with honey, added a good pinch of salt and pepper, then tossed everything together before plating up.
