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Easy Peasy Steamed Broccoli and Cheese
Broccoli is wonderful in a good many dishes! Steaming just happens to be one of my favorite ways to serve it. Who doesn't like broccoli and cheese?
But I also make a great Fresh Broccoli Casserole, Broccoli and Cheese Soup, and Chopped Broccoli Salad that are an amazing use for broccoli.
If this just isn't enough for you, toss it into your soups and stews, on your pizza, in your quesadillas, or just about anything else. Obviously it is great all by itself!
And broccoli is packed full of great vitamins and nutrients.
Health Benefits of Broccoli
Broccoli must be cooked correctly in order to retain the greatest amount of nutrients possible. Steaming is the best way to cook it, with boiling being the absolute worst.
This wonderful vegetable has amazing benefits that include being a natural anti-inflammatory, an anti-oxidant, helpful with detoxifying your system of all of the many toxins we encounter on a daily basis, and an anti-cancer food that helps to build your immune system and essentially prevent immune-deficiency sicknesses like cancer.
With all of the chemicals and preservatives we are constantly putting into our bodies through our foods, the pollution we breathe in from cars, factories, and other pollutant causing areas, and the toxins we create from constant stress, "we end up with a combination of inadequate detoxification of toxic substances, chronic inflammation, and oxidative stress that puts us at greater risk for developing cancer." (Health4us)
"In a way that might be unique among foods, the nutrients found in broccoli are able to change this set of connections between inflammation, oxidative stress, detox, and cancer." (WHFoods)
Now that you know how truly beneficial broccoli can be for your health and well-being, let's look at how to easily make it!
Cook Time
Ingredients
- About 1 cup water
- 1 large head fresh broccoli
- 1 slice American cheese, for each person
Instructions
- The first two steps are interchangeable.
- You can fill your pot with 1-2 inches of water an then insert your steamer basket, or place your steamer basket in the pot and then fill the pot with water up to the bottom of the steamer basket.
- Break up an entire head of broccoli into smaller pieces. Drop them into the steamer basket.
- If you choose to, chop up the stem into small pieces as well and drop it into your steamer basket. The stem actually holds more nutrients than do the florets, but no one usually eats it.
- Set your pot over medium high heat on the stove, cover and cook for about 25-30 minutes.
- The first thing you'll notice if you check on your broccoli about halfway through is that the dull green you see will turn a bright green. That's good.
- You actually want to hold on to that bright green color and try to catch your broccoli as it's just turning soft but still brightly colored. It takes some practice.
- You'll know it's done when you can easily cut through a piece with your fork.
- Because you have a steamer basket in your pot, you should easily be able to scoop it out with a spoon straight onto your plate.
- Unwrap and place one piece of American cheese on top of your pile of steamed broccoli.
- If you would prefer to use grated cheese, or even freshly grate your own, go for it!
- It should melt on it's own on top of your steamed broccoli.
- Yummy! Yummy!
Nutritional Information
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving size: 1/2 cup of steamed broccoli | |
| Calories | 31 |
| Calories from Fat | 0 |
| % Daily Value * | |
| Fat 0 g | |
| Saturated fat 0 g | |
| Unsaturated fat 0 g | |
| Carbohydrates 6 g | 2% |
| Sugar 2 g | |
| Fiber 2 g | 8% |
| Protein 3 g | 6% |
| Cholesterol 0 mg | |
| Sodium 30 mg | 1% |
| * The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA. | |
Personal Review
It's really pretty tricky to catch the broccoli right at it's peak, but it's possible. It just takes a great deal of practice. But even if it's lost it's bright color when you take it out and serve it, it still tastes just as good.
If you can master the art of cooking it just right, though, you can harness the greatest amount of vitamins and nutrients that this amazing vegetable has to offer.
Feel free to serve it by itself, topped with American cheese like I did, shredded cheese, grated cheese, or even yummy Parmesan cheese.
Being as inexpensive as it is, and as easy to get ahold of, we like to use it a great deal in just about every meal we make, when we have it on hand.
I hope this recipe makes it easier for you to do so as well!
Quick Poll
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© 2014 Victoria Van Ness
