Broccoli Purée & March

It must be March as we went to bed on Friday following a beautiful, sunny, 68F day and woke up to 4 inches of snow and temp of 28F with a low Saturday night predicted to be 14F.  Just north of us in Knoxville, they got 6-7 inches of snow.

It turned these tree blooms into big cotton balls.

I’m in the final push to lose my remaining weight prior to the now scheduled April 11 hip replacement surgery so I will be eating very low-cal to make sure I get where I need to be.  One of the foods that really helps me is broccoli and fortunately I like it but I’m getting a little bored with just steamed broccoli.  And would believe that just this morning I was looking at Jenn’s  “Once Upon A Chef” blog post titled “18 St. Patrick’s day Recipes” and she had two broccoli recipes.  The one that called to me was “BroccoliPuree” because I could easily get some other flavors into the broccoli rather than trying to get them to stick on the outside.

I multiplied the recipe by 1½ for my broccoli amount to get the ingredients below and I added a heaping tbsp of minced garlic.  You can click on the link above to get the original recipe along with several how-to pics.

Broccoli Puree - Adapted from Once Upon A Chef

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided, plus more for serving if desired

¾ cup chopped yellow onion, from 1 small onion

1 heaping tbsp. minced garlic

1 1/8 cup water

1½ tsp. salt, plus more to taste

¾ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

3 pounds broccoli crowns, cut into florets, tough stems thinly sliced (see note)

1½ tbsp. fresh thyme leaves

3/8 cup sour cream (Larry used Greek yogurt)

Instructions:

1. In a pot large enough to hold all of the broccoli, melt 3T of the butter over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until soft, 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Add the water, salt, and pepper and stir with a wooden spoon to combine.

3. Add the broccoli and bring the liquid to a boil; cover the pot tightly and reduce the heat to low. Cook until the broccoli is tender, about 15 minutes.

4. Transfer all half of the contents of the pot, including the liquid, to a food processor fitted with the steel blade. (Larry had to do it in two batches plus add a little water as there was none left in the steaming pan).

5. Add the remaining butter and half the thyme and process until completely smooth. Remove to a bowl.

6. Add the remaining broccoli, a little water, the sour cream, and the remainder of the thyme and process until smooth.

7. Remove to the bowl and mix the two batches together.

8. Taste and adjust the salt, if necessary.

If eating immediately, transfer to a serving bowl, and top with a pad of butter, if using, and chives.

I made it up mid-afternoon and when ready to eat it, I filled my bowl, reheated, and topped with grated Parmesan.

The Verdict:

I really liked it and will definitely be on the menu in the future – likely a couple more times over the next month.  Per the recipe, it is 1150 calories for the entire dish so I can eat a fourth of it plus some cheese and still be around 300 calories.  Now I’m off to find a similar recipe for cauliflower.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

03/10/22 event date