Spicy Broccoli 🥦 Rabe And Bean Sprouts Freestyle Dish!

I had two juicy bundles of broccoli rabe in my fridge that were starting to go bad, so I had to use them last weekend, so I present some pictures and a play by play on my process.

Broccoli rabe, also known as rapini, is one of my favorite greens to eat. To me, I think of Italian cuisine, but it is popular in different styles of cooking, especially in the Mediterranean region. I would even go as far as to call it a superior green, but I have had some delicious Jamaican callaloo or collard greens that has certainly ranked up there.

I guess the authentic Italian way to cook it (according to my partners Italian-as-can-be, Brooklyn-born and raised grandfather) is to sautee it in garlic and olive oil, cooking it about half to 3\4 way through and then you add a bit of water to it, and cover it with a lid to cook the rest of the way, providing you with those flavorful juices.

So I made the dish once just "standard style" on Saturday, but on Sunday, I had some other produce that I wanted to use up, so I switched it up a bit and made spicy broccoli rabe with bean sprouts and a garden picked tomato 🍅 and some peppers.

So, let's start with our preparation:

Chop off the bottoms, but I like to leave a little stem, personally.

Aglio e olio

I'm choppin broccolaaayyy. I'm choppin broccolay (rabe)


The Brownings of the garlics

Cram it all in that pan!

Cover her up to keep in the heat.

Once it's cooked most of of the way, let's add a little water 🌊 and cover her back up!

Bon appetit!...er, Buon appetito!

And now for the grand finale, the updated spicy edition of the dish, as promised. I had some bean sprouts that needed to be eaten also, so I figured, why not? It actually turned out really good. I thought about turning it into a soup, but I just left it as is.

Sometimes I find bean sprouts to be a little too "dirty" tasting(earthy?), so I like to cook them a little more than when I go out and get pho...but that's just personal preference, do what sounds best to you!...I probably won't be coming over for dinner any time soon!

Ingredients:
1 bundle of broccoli rabe
1 jalapeno
1 on pkg of bean sprouts
1 tomato
A dozen or so basil leaves
Garlic
Olive oil
1 sliver of Carolina Reaper pepper (optional 🔥🥵)

I basically made this as above, but added the sprouts and peppers at the beginning and added the sprouts, tomato and basil a couple minutes after that! (I put just a sliver of the reaper just to give it that extra oomph)

Here she is loaded up:

And after cooking for a few minutes:

Adding the sprouts:

Add the basil(here I have both freshly picked Italian basil and Thai basil...to compliment both sides of the dish)

Check it out!...it turned out way better than I thought it would...I was worried I might have to turn it into soup!

Anyone else out there make anything similar or have any tips or tricks?

Thanks for reading...I hope you liked my post!

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