Better Broccoli and Sesame-Ginger Salmon

2 quarts of cut broccoli (two bundles from
the grocery store) plus the almond coating

Broccoli

A recent blog posting I read described a method for preparing broccoli where the writer described that that it was difficult to stop eating it because it was so delicious.  And his son ate a lot as well. Broccoli is an ok vegetable, I like it well enough but I don't love it.  I figured if a recipe could get his son to eat a lot of broccoli, it must be tasty, so I made it as well.

Coated broccoli, waiting for the oven.

It doesn't have an official name on the guy's blog, but I guess I would call it almond-crunch baked broccoli.  You cut up the broccoli florets and stems, toss them in two foamy egg whites.


Meanwhile, mix up some almond meal with spices.  When I went to pull out my almond meal, I didn't have the 1 cup specified, so I added some flax seed meal and hemp seeds. I also added garlic powder, paprika, and salt & pepper. Husband Jeff found it easier to mix the broccoli up with the egg whites and then the coating by dumping everything into a gallon zipper bag. 

Cooked broccoli

Toss it into a sprayed rimmed baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  It didn't seem done enough for us when they came out of the oven (a little too firm), but they sat for a bit while our fish cooked and they were much more to our liking.

Sesame-soy glaze

 

Salmon

To go with our almond-crunch broccoli, I made toasted sesame-ginger salmon.  I was too lazy to marinate the salmon since I had trouble just remembering to pull it out of the freezer to defrost, so I followed the writer's recommendation that you can skip the marinade and just make the glaze.  I used only half the amount of honey since I prefer more savory meat items.  I cooked the salmon under the broiler for 10 minutes and spooned the glaze on each piece as we put them on the plate.  It was so delicious!  The glaze has a perfect balance between salty and sweet, and it works great on salmon since it's such a strongly-flavored fish that it can stand up to it. 

Salmon

There was a tiny bit of glaze left, so I saved it and am planning to put it on buttered carrot coins later in the week.  I am definitely going to make this glaze again.

I would also love to try the almond coating on other things, I've used a similar coating for chicken breasts using Parmesan cheese, but it would be fun to make mozzarella stick in a similar manner using string cheese cut into bite-size pieces.  And a coconut shrimp using half unsweetened flake coconut and almond meal, and then dip in a spicy-sweet fruity sauce.