Tonight I learned a new way to cook broccoli -- just pour boiling water over it! It's not quite as good as broccoli steamed like this but it has one huge redeeming factor: Easy Clean-up. Prep takes only a cover-able bowl and a small bowl for the sauce. It's also low-cal broccoli, low-carb broccoli, high-fiber broccoli and high-antioxidant broccoli. And zero -- that'd be 0 Weight Watchers points! And yes, despite all these many virtues, the broccoli tastes good too! NEXT TIME: The 'sesame sauce' was good but next time I'll add garlic and/or ginger, maybe a touch of hot sauce. I suspect this technique would work well with frozen broccoli, too. MORE BROCCOLI IDEAS: For other broccoli recipes, see here in the Recipe Box . (If you have trouble with the broccoli link, return to the main page and click By Vegetable in the right hand column. And please accept my apologies, the index file has gotten so big that it's acting up on occasion.) QUICK SESAME BROCCOLI B

Ten minutes from stovetop to tabletop -- no beating that. Plus if you're looking for a fast AND low-carb vegetable, this has your name all over it. It's just simple spinach gussied up with currants and pine nuts and hotted up with a bit of red pepper flake. Next time, I'll take a pass on the currants but the pine nuts added good texture contrast. Given the holiday indulgence that's settled all too comfortably in my waist and regions further south, I virtuously cut the fat from a tablespoon each of olive oil and butter to just a single teaspoon of olive oil. But as the spinach finished cooking, the taste buds cried out for butter flavor so I did succumb and add a teaspoon. It made all the difference, I think, between feeling cheated and satisfied -- especially important when there are still too many post-holiday temptations hanging around. For other recipes quick-quick vegetables, see here in the Recipe Box . QUICK SPINACH with CURRANTS & PINE NUTS Bookmark or

What a creative way to use up (and stretch!) a small piece of leftover beef – leftover pork works well too – with a quick, meaty salad. But the recipe has moved to a new location, please see Simple Beef Salad at Kitchen Parade, my food column. Looking for healthy new ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of super-organized quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables . Join " veggie evangelist " Alanna Kellogg to explore the exciting world of common and not-so-common vegetables, seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special. © Copyright Kitchen Parade 2006 & 2022 (retire)

(Many thanks to Markus Jordan aka computix for his inspiring photo of a London "fruit" market!) When Sweetnicks announced ARF Tuesdays to encourage us all to eat more antioxidant-rich foods, I figured A Veggie Venture was a shoe in. All vegetables are rich in antioxidants, right? Still, I'm one of those anal types who can follow instructions (and recipes), so yes, I like lists. Tell me what to do, make it easy and I'm in. (Cook a vegetable every day? No problem, thanks to limited choices. Just a vegetable, thank you, preferably high fiber and low calorie, whether as a side or a soup or on occasion, in cookies and cakes. But pick a dessert for Saturday? Now that's a chore. Chocolate? Fruit? Pie? Cake? Sorbet? Something sublimely simple or ridiculously over the top? Who can decide? Not me.) So when Sweetnicks helpfully included a recent study's list of the Top 20 antioxidant-rich foods, I sailed from top to bottom seeking out the veggies like a kid pl

Recipe for a 'light' spinach dip made lighter with 2 times the spinach, 2 times the artichokes and half the sour cream. Still rich and delicious! ~recipe & photo updated 2011~ ~ more recently updated recipes ~ 2006: Over the Christmas weekend, two hungry teenagers hovered in my kitchen before supper, eyeing the cookie tray. "How about a snack?" the older one asked. "Sure," I answered, opening the fridge door. "Really? Like what?" asked the younger one, hoping for cookies but knowing his Auntie Al. I felt so prepared! Inspired by a recipe from Sweetnicks ', this spinach dip was already prepared. That first night, spread on baked mini pitas, the spinach dip was an instant hit with the kids and grown-ups alike. "THIS could be addictive," munched my dad. And unlike the family addiction to Christmas cookies, this one is decidedly healthful. That's because I "turned upside down" the original recipe's proportions,

Oh, so festive looking! Beyond pretty, however, this cauliflower, nut and fruit combination just didn't work. I've had my eye on the recipe for a long while. I've bought cauliflower for it twice and then used it oh so deliciously here and also wonderfully here . I planned it for Christmas dinner and then ran out of burners. The trouble is: there's no delivery mechanism between the nuts and fruit and the cauliflower. Sure, cutting the butter from four to one tablespoon might have made a difference. But I don't think so. So the result was big chunks of cauliflower (good, of course) with buttery nuts and fruit (how can buttery nuts and fruit be anything but good?) on top and clustered underneath -- but not in the least bit blended together. Too bad -- pretty AND delicious would have made it worth the calories! CAULIFLOWER with NUTS & DRIED FRUIT Bookmark or print this recipe only Hands-on time: 10 minutes Time to table: 30 minutes Serves 5 Water