Just Bento

Broccoli soup. I made a heap of it when my broccoli started sprouting faster than I could eat it. Am reaping the rewards now; when I can't be bothered cooking dinner, I defrost a bag of it.

Boil your broccoli in salted water according to preference - I like mine a little crunchy, but you might like it smooth. Sauté some garlic and onions in a bit of butter or oil. Add flour to the oniony garlicy butter to make a roux, turn it into a thin-ish sauce (which is a thick soup) by adding some of the broccoli water and some milk (proportions depend on how "diet" you want to soup to be), stirring furiously to prevent lumps. Add pepper and salt to taste, and some cheese if you're not going the "diet" route. Put the cooked broccoli in the food processor and whizz it, then add it to the soup. Heat. Eat. Cool the leftovers and freeze. I use plastic ziplock bags.

I'm assuming everyone knows how to make a roux, and sauce therefrom? Plenty of instructions on the web and in recipe books if not.

Nice with cauliflower too, from my personal experience, and I think it'd be fine with most veges - you might want to use different seasonings though. I make cream of tomato soup in a similar way, though without the water of course, and use savory, marjoram, thyme, etc - depending on what I feel like and what is flourishing in the garden at the time.

If you've not see it, I included two broccoli recipes in this recent thread:
http://www.justbento.com/forum/broccoli-help

The first is my absolutely favourite way to eat broccoli (as a variation brown a little garlic and 'melt' a couple of anchovies into some olive oil and spoon it over the broccoli once it's done. A little bit of crushed chilli, a squeeze of lemon juice, and (optionally) some panko/breadcrumbs browned in a little olive oil with herbs and/or garlic scattered over the top is also delicious.

The Tsukemono Broccoli recipe (which is supposed to be best 30 to 60 minutes after it's made) is not one I've tried yet.

I've stumbled over a nice recipe a couple of days ago, which actually made me go out and buy more broccoli! I give you the broccoli pasta meatball gratin (and maybe you can replace the dairy or just omit it and use more stock):

500g broccoli (about one broccoli head)
250g short pasta, like penne
300g ground meat
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 Tbs breadcrumbs (I usually cut part of a fresh slice in small bits)
2 Tbs jogurt
Salt, pepper, (italian) herbs to taste
grated cheese
150ml (about 2/3 cup) vegetable stock
250ml (1 cup) cream

Parboil the pasta for a couple of minutes. Parboil the broccoli in the vegetable stock, it should still have a good bite. Don't discard the stock! Mix the meat, diced onion and garlic, breadcrumbs and jogurt in a bowl, season with herbs, salt and pepper. Form small meatballs. Add the cream to the stock and bring to a boil, season with salt and pepper.
Fill broccoli, pasta and meatballs in a ceramic dish, pour the cream mixture over it. Spread the grated cheese and put the whole thing in the oven at 220°C (ca. 450°F) for 30 - 35 minutes.
Enjoy!

I just recently came across a site with an interesting broccoli recipe.

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://karmafreecooking.files.word...

It sounds pretty tasty actually :)
Hope you like it.
Adriana