Attention Broccoli Lovers

Here's a new vegetable for you: Gai Lan, also known as kai-lan, Chinese broccoli or Chinese kale. It's really quite delicious! The flower sections are kind of sweet, the leaves are a bit bitter, and the stalks reminded us of something between broccoli and asparagus.


We recently had it in the recipe "Gai Lan with Vegetarian Oyster Sauce" (we used non-vegetarian), from the magazine Vegetarian Times, on top of sesame noodles. Wonderful. The recipe called for boiling it, which you do with a slighted salted and baking soda-ed pot of water in order to help with the bitterness of the leaves.


Another great way to eat gai lan is stir-fried with ginger and garlic.

By the way, if you are one who truly loves broccoli - like everyone in my immediate family - and have been wondering about the magazine Vegetarian Times, April is the issue to buy and try out. They have an entire section of recipes that center around broccoli. Or the recipes will be available on VT's website in May.