A recipe for the heart – Purple sprouting broccoli & mange tout with an oriental dressing
Purple sprouting broccoli is in season and besides tasting very good, medicinally has some pretty compelling reasons to be eaten. Now this tasty and quick recipes make broccoli infinately more interesting and edible.
Purple Sprouting Broccoli with Chilli and Sesame Dressing
Serves 3-4
Ingredients
350 g purple sprouting broccoli
200g mange tout
salt
For the dressing:
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp Thai fish sauce
1 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
Salt to taste
Cooking Instructions
Start by preparing the broccoli by cutting it into even-sized pieces, stalks as well. Top and tail and take the rind off the mange tout. Wash thoroughly.
Place both of the ingredients into fan steamer, place into a saucepan, add a little boiling water, sprinkle with a little sea salt and place the lid on firmly shut to allow to steam cook for about 4 minutes.
Meanwhile, to make the dressing, place all the dressing ingredients into a bowl, stir well and taste, season as per your preference.�When the vegetables are cooked, remove from the steamer and transfer to a warm serving bowl. Drizzle the dressing over the vegetables, toss it around and serve straight away.
Serve with steamed rice or with a meat/tofu main dish
Health tips 1: Did you know that broccoli contains more vitamin C than most citrus fruits and it has more calcium than a glass milk and has more fibre than whole wheat bread.
Health tips 2: The best way to eat broccoli is to steam it, boiling it loses its mineral value very quickly, though broccoli can be eaten raw as well.
Broccoli is high Vitamin A, C and Vitamin B1 (Thiamin), B2 (Riboflavin), B3 (Niacin), B5 (Pantothenic acid), B6, B9 (Folate). It also comes packed with lots of good minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc.
Broccoli for weight loss
Broccoli is considered a low-glycemic food which helps to normalize blood sugar. One of the keys to weight loss is controlling the body’s response to insulin.
The real potent nutritional value of broccoli lies in substances called isothiocyanates. (Don’t let the name put you to sleep). Isothiocyanates are a class of very potent anti-carcinogens. Meaning, they fight and help prevent cancer.
Broccoli is Anti-cancerous
Specifically, tests have shown that broccoli’s anti-cancer compounds greatly protected mice from stomach cancer. Although you don’t hear about stomach cancer much per se, it is actually the second most common form of cancer. Studies conducted at the John Hopkins University (USA) showed that broccoli contains compounds that trigger the body to produce a substance (sulforaphane) that, in turn, manufactures enzymes that are powerful cancer fighters.
Author – Kumud Gandhi – Founder of The Cooking Academy – A unique cookery school that put the medicinal value of ingredients at the heart of every thing they teach. www.thecookingacademy.co.uk
Kumud Gandhi is a Nutritional Food Scientist bestselling Author, Broadcaster, and Keynote Speaker on the subject of nutritional health for productivity & performance in the workplace. In 2010 Kumud founded ‘The Cooking Academy’ a cookery school that focusses on cooking for nutritional health and wellbeing. Kumud regularly presents to international audiences on a variety of topics such as ‘Eating for Immunity and a Lifetime of Wellness’. She is an expert in the field of Wellness in the Workplace and works with organizations to create transformational change in employee health & well-being through nutrition and health coaching.
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