Don't throw out your broccoli stems—make this tasty stir fry instead | The Woks of Life

And if you throw all of this away, that's all going in the garbage. This is its own meal in and of itself. And I'm gonna have two meals out of my bunches of broccoli, one with the stem and one with the florets. Hi everyone. So we recently did a video about how to trim asparagus in a way that allows you to use more of it and not waste so much of it. And you all really responded to that video and related to it. So I immediately thought about, okay, what other vegetables are there that kind of have a similar issue? And I immediately thought of broccoli. So a lot of times when you buy broccoli, it looks like this. You have the florets, but then you have a lot of stem. Almost half of this is stem. And you, you know, some people just sort of cut it right here and then throw the stems away, which obviously you, this is a lot of the weight that you're paying for at the grocery store. So that's, you know, pretty wasteful. And some people is just sort of like, you know, I guess I'll eat that and I'll chop it up and just throw it into my, into the saute that I'm making or whatever. But oftentimes when you just sort of chop it up and just like throw it into the dish willy nilly, a lot of people don't like eating the broccoli stem so that they just kind of get left behind anyway and thrown out in the end. So today I'm going to show you how to sort of transform the broccoli stem and make it into its own special vegetable in its own right. And I'm going to show you a really awesome dish that you can cook with it. Okay, so I have two bunches of broccoli here and this is, you know, I would say the amount of broccoli that one might buy for a week with a typical family of four if you're just using the florets, right? So when I bring home broccoli like this, what I tend to do is I separate the florets from the stems and I use them differently. So I use the florets for one dish and then I use the stems for another. So I'm actually going to be using like half of this amount for each dinner that I would be cooking that week. So I first separate the broccoli. So let me just show the camera. So I just kind of cut it like that. And now I have these like lovely florets. I'm going to have six little crowns here for whatever, you know, if I wanted to make beef with broccoli or, you know, just roasted broccoli, I could just use the florets for that. And then I tend to use the florets first and then save the stems for later in the week because they tend to hold up better. So I store the stems. I just put them back into the produce bag, store them back for later. So I'm going to show you how I process these stems differently. So I think a lot of people tend to just sort of like cut the broccoli if they're going to use it, which is admirable. Good to not waste. They usually just sort of cut, slice the broccoli into coins and then just throw it into whatever they're making. But I think that there's a better way to treat them that kind of transforms them and makes you forget that it's a broccoli stem and makes it more likely that the people in your family or whoever you're cooking for are going to eat it. Okay, so the bottom is pretty tough of broccoli stems. We all know that, but nearer to the top where the florets are, the inside is actually really tender. So you want to make sure to save that and use that. So what we're going to do is trim the bottom off. We're going to peel the outer layer off the bottom, just as you would do with asparagus. And then what we're going to do is actually, we're going to julienne these stems and we're going to sort of make a really nice stir fry with julienne bamboo shoots and some chicken and it's going to be delicious. Okay, so regardless of how you're going to eventually cut or chop or julienne the broccoli stem, the process for preparing it is going to be the same. So I'm going to start by just trimming this tough part of the end off, really not much, just about a quarter of an inch I'm going to slice off. And here you see in the center is it's very tender and then you have this sort of like green ring around the outside. That green ring is sort of the tough part. So that's the part that you're going to want to peel away. So I'm just going to take a peeler and I'm just going to, just like the asparagus, peel towards me. It's a little bit harder because the broccoli is a little bit bumpy. Like it's not as smooth as asparagus stems, but that's okay. You just sort of go over it. And you can kind of see here, you have this tender green part underneath where this sort of white part that you would want to peel off. That's the tough part. I use a peeler, but you can also use a paring knife. And you don't have to go all the way up the stem either. Sort of once you hit this like place where the stems of the broccoli come out, you can stop peeling. It's not as urgent. So that's it. That's how you prepare the stem. So I have my peeled broccoli stems here. And now what I'm going to do is I'm going to julienne them. So the dish that I'm going to make, I'm going to mix broccoli stems with bamboo shoots. These bamboo shoots have been julienned. So I'm going to julienne the broccoli stems in the same way. And I will show you how to do that. So I'm going to take a broccoli stem and I'm going to hold, cut it, hold my knife on an angle. And I'm going to slice it on an angle into long, thin rectangle-ish pieces. Just like this. Okay. And the reason you're slicing on an angle is to make sure that the slice is nice and long. That way when you julienne the matchsticks, the matchsticks are nice and long. Then once I have my slices, I'm just going to sort of line them up like this so that they are fanned out and flat. You want, when you're julienning, you want like a flat sort of line of vegetable to cut through so that it stays stable and doesn't sort of shimmy around as you're trying to cut. So now I'm just going to sort of hold it down and run my knife through this way. And you get really nice, thin matchsticks. And you just want to make sure that they are oriented straight so that you get those nice long matchsticks and you don't sort of end up cutting at a different angle that'll make them shorter. Of course, like the end pieces like this, like this end piece is really short. That'll be short. That's fine. I think this really transforms the texture of the broccoli stem and makes it into something a little bit new and a little bit exciting. So you can also just dice these. You can dice them really small. I would just start with thicker slices and then you would cut crosswise and then the other way to dice. And you could replace frozen peas in a recipe with the broccoli stem. Or if you wanted, you could sort of take these rectangles and, you know, cut them into smaller, like almost like rectangle cut bamboo shoots if you wanted to do that. The key is just sort of slicing the broccoli stem into a different shape that makes it more pleasant to eat. Really, that's the goal. So we've used broccoli stems in fried rice, in noodle dishes, in vegetable stir fries. We have an everyday vegetable stir fry that's kind of like this fridge clean out recipe. You can use any sort of odds and ends that you have left in the fridge at the end of the week. That's great for this. We also have a bunch of recipes that use a vegetable called Celtis, which is a little more tender than broccoli stems, but very similar. So any of our recipes that use Celtis, you could also try substituting broccoli stem for that. So that's it. I've julienned it all. And as you can see, this is a lot of vegetable. This is really like its own piece of produce here. So I'm getting two meals out of my bunches of broccoli, one meal that is using the stem and one meal that's gonna use the florets. So you can use these julienned broccoli stems in lots of different ways, but today I'm going to make a little chicken stir fry with the broccoli stems and some bamboo shoots. And yeah, we'll show you how to cook it. Making this broccoli stem stir fry is really easy. So once you're ready to turn on your wok, you should have your marinated chicken, your cut broccoli stems and bamboo shoots, and your sauce made at the ready. To marinate the protein, we just mix sliced chicken with water, cornstarch, oil, and oyster sauce, a pretty basic velveting formula. For this recipe, you can also substitute beef or pork. It's pretty forgiving. To make the sauce, we combine chicken stock, cornstarch, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, and salt. First, as always, sear the meat in a single layer and stir fry it until the meat is about 75% cooked. Transfer it back to the marinating bowl, and don't worry about this because the chicken is going to get cooked again. Let the empty wok heat again over high heat and throw in another tablespoon of oil. Next, add the garlic, broccoli stems, and bamboo shoots. Stir fry everything for 30 seconds. The goal with these simple meat and vegetable stir fries is to get the meat juicy and the veggies crisp tender. Because the broccoli stems are julienned, you actually don't have to cook them for too long. Stir fry for 30 seconds, then add the Shaoxing wine to deglaze the wok. At this point, you can add the chicken back in and stir up the sauce to make sure the cornstarch is well-incorporated. Throw the sauce in and stir fry everything over high heat for another minute or so until the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon. And your broccoli stem stir fry is ready. And that's it, an easy broccoli stem stir fry that transforms broccoli stems into something new. Smells like lo mein. Mm. A quiet moment for the hardworking mother. Yeah, I took too big of a bite to be able to talk. I am hungry. What? You know, I'll admit that when somebody, including me, cuts those broccoli stems into coins and then just throws them into the sauteed broccoli wok and just sort of cooks it so that it doesn't go to waste, I eat them, but it's not that enjoyable to eat them because, you know, they can be tough and they're big sort of pieces. But when you cut the broccoli stem into something else, like in this case, julienne matchsticks, or if you dice it small, it really makes it so much more pleasant to eat. And it makes it into its own special kind of vegetable. I mean, it just pairs so well with the bamboo shoots. In this dish, this is a prime example of how all of the ingredients cut into the same shape makes for like a really nice texture and eating experience. So if you're out there and you're throwing away your broccoli stems, don't. You're missing out on this. It is actually quite good. Poison. Let's get that bread. Or should I say, let's get that broccoli. Bread? Yeah, people know how to cut broccoli. That's so lame. I already know. I know. Does Gen Z know? And today, I'm gonna do the same thing with broccoli. Okay.