Sweep It Up With Broccoli

Aside from pasta, rice and bread being seemingly omnipresent in many types of regional cuisine for their role as a filler, they’re also often used as a vehicle to sop up a sauce.

From a rich, red wine jus to a light lemongrass ginger glaze, it’s rather uncommon to see sauces of any kind atop a protein meal served with veggies.

Let’s break that habit!

Last week, I wrote about how spaghetti squash comes in handy in lieu of traditional pasta, and guess what?  Broccoli does quite a nice job at it, too.  

I recall years prior to following the Paleo diet that I’ve fallen in love with, when I was vegan, I used to enjoy a dish from a local Chinese, vegetarian establishment featuring broccoli, tofu, rice and their version of an oyster sauce.  Not remotely Paleo (but then, neither was I), but the common factor was that even then, the broccoli served the perfect role to create an enjoyable way of eating the sauce that remained, other than drinking it!

If you’re making baby steps to going completely Paleo, try using broccoli, or any veggie, for that matter, the next time you would have planned on serving your protein on a bed of pasta or with rice pilaf.