“Broccoli: solid choice. Unless it’s tenderstem, in which case, dubious moral character. Possibly a swinger. A voyeur at the very least.”

Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, The Midult’s Guide to Shopping Baskets, The Telegraph, 25 March 2017

I’m not quite sure whether to be proud or ashamed of enjoying a type of broccoli which cooks more quickly than the norm, and which I can eat whole, stem and all….or not. Making a ‘solid choice’ sounds a bit staid. Being of dubious moral character could be interestingly dangerous…. but a ‘swinger’… a ‘voyeur’…. how do they think these things up?

I’d prefer ‘innovator’…. or ‘pioneer’. At least I think I deserve that sort of label for dreaming up this particular combination of Tenderstem with endive.

Why break the habits of a lifetime and mix a cooked vegetable with crisp salad leaves? Well, because sometimes you can improve on the humdrum norm…and because sometimes a change is as good as a rest. This shot gun marriage of endive and Tenderstem is certainly not going to end in divorce.

For more about broccoli, and lots of other ideas for what to do with it, follow this link.

For more about broccolini, follow this link.

Recipe for habit-breaking broccolini with endive

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 400g/14 oz tenderstem broccoli (aka broccolini)
• 1 endive, cut into strips
• Couple of knobs of butter

Method

1. Put a saucepan of salted water on to boil and add the florets and smaller leaves of the broccoli. Boil for about three minutes.
2. Drain, return to the saucepan, and add the butter. Heat gently until the butter melts.
3. Add the endive, stir, and serve immediately.