You're Making A Big Mistake By Not Cooking Broccoli For This Meal

Broccoli has a bad reputation, especially when trying to get young children to eat their vegetables, but we've never understood why. The cruciferous vegetable is packed with nutrition and can be deliciously prepared in a variety of ways, or subtly snuck into foods. While there are a few mistakes you might be making when cooking broccoli, the gravest error may be not including it in your breakfast rotation.

Broccoli is made up mostly of water, along with a bit of carbs, protein, and fiber, as well as vitamins C, K, and folate. Additionally, the veggie contains antioxidants and may be linked to lower levels of cholesterol, a reduced risk of certain cancers, and even potential benefits for ocular health. Adding broccoli to some of your morning meals is a simple way to boost your nutritional intake — and it's much easier than you might anticipate, even if you don't have much time in the morning. 

For a simple scramble, finely chop the florets and saute them in a bit of salted butter before pouring beaten eggs into the pan; you can always enhance the dish with sauteed onions and a cheese like shredded cheddar, fresh goat cheese, or cubed feta. If you're frequently in a time crunch in the mornings but still want something more exciting than a bowl of cereal, you can take a meal-prepping approach to breakfast and roast, steam, or saute broccoli florets in advance, so they're ready to be tossed into a quick egg scramble in the morning.

Spinach may get all the attention when it comes to breakfast, but we believe broccoli is an excellent morning vegetable. You could easily swap broccoli for spinach in many recipes, like this easy spinach frittata recipe, as long as the broccoli is chopped finely enough and you account for a few more minutes of cooking time. It might sound bizarre, but I've even blended steamed broccoli and cauliflower into post-gym smoothies in a pinch when I was out of frozen spinach, and the vegetables were almost undetectable when combined with fruit, almond milk, ice, and a flavored protein powder.

When working with broccoli, don't discard the stems, as they are sweet and tender. Use a vegetable peeler or a sharp knife to trim away the woody outer layers of the stems until you see no more white pith, only pale green. Broccoli stems are delicious raw, but you can easily chop them up and saute them alongside the florets as well. Both the florets and stems make an excellent breakfast hash combined with potatoes and onions, topped with a couple of poached or fried eggs. If you need a grab-and-go breakfast, make mini frittatas in a muffin tin ahead of time and fill them with broccoli, cheese, bacon or sausage, and anything else you like. You can store them in the refrigerator and eat them throughout the week by quickly warming them up before your dash out the door.