This easy broccoli with garlic sauce recipe is healthier and tastier than your ordinary Chinese takeout. This easy recipe will be done in no time and it’s absolutely delicious, healthy, and vegan!
Broccoli with garlic is inspired by the Asian takeout dishes that people love because of their saucy flavors. This Asian style broccoli, made with marinated stir-fried broccoli in a sticky garlic sauce, is an explosion of flavors that the Chinese takeout is known for but it’s super healthy since broccoli is a super veggie.
If you people loved my Sweet and Sour Cauliflower Recipe, you are definitely going to enjoy this Broccoli with garlic sauce recipe more.
Ingredients For Broccoli with Garlic Sauce
- Head of Broccoli: It’s the main character in this broccoli with garlic dish. It’s also a really nutritious veggie.
- Flour: It’ll help to form a layer on the broccoli that’ll make the broccoli crispy.
- Seasoning: Paprika Powder, Garlic Powder, and salt are used to infuse some taste and flavor to broccoli florets.
- Plant-based Milk: Plant-based milk will act as a binder and will flour and seasoning will stick to the broccoli florets. it’ll make the broccoli even more crispy and delicious.
- Sunflower Oil: You need oil to stir fry the broccoli.
The Sticky Garlic Sauce
This is a kind of garlic sauce that is sweet and tangy at the same time. It is a sticky consistency. Things you need for sauce are
- Soy Sauce: It’s the umami factor. You can use either light soy sauce which is milder in saltiness than dark soy sauce or the dark one.
- Vegan Honey: It is beeless honey and the recipe can be found on my blog. It’ll add a nice sweetness to the dish that’ll amplify the other flavors and mix well with the salty soy sauce and the other ingredients. You can replace it with brown sugar.
- Sesame Oil: We will add a dash of sesame oil just to give the traditional Chinese flavor to the sauce. It’ll add a nice aroma and flavor to the sauce.
- Rice Vinegar: It’ll add a tartness to the sauce that will enhance and blend with the umami and sweet flavors.
- Garlic Cloves: Who makes a garlic sauce without garlic? So, you’ll need garlic cloves for a tasty garlicky flavor.
- Red Chili Flakes: It’ll even the umami and sweet flavors and make the sauce spicy.
- Sesame Seeds: Sesame seeds will add more crunch and flavor.
- Corn Starch: It’ll help to thicken the sauce when you pour it onto the stir-fried broccoli.
How to Make Broccoli with Garlic Sauce
For this takeout style broccoli, you’ll have to:
- Slice the fresh broccoli into florets – they’re the branches of the broccoli head. You need to cut the tender stem too. It’ll be easier to cut the florets if you cut the stem first but you can cut it afterward too. Then, cut the broccoli into small or bite-sized pieces.
- Marinate the Broccoli florets with seasoning and four. Add them to a plastic bag and add in all the other broccoli ingredients except the milk. Shake the bag well to mix everything and coat the broccoli with the marinade. Add the milk and shake well to mix again.
- Stir fry the Marinated Broccoli: Preheat a pan or a wok with Sunflower oil on high flame. When it’s heated up, add in the marinated broccoli and stir fry
- Make the Sauce: Whisk together all the sauce ingredients. after cooking the broccoli for around 3 to 5 minutes, add in the sauce and let it cook and become thick. If the sauce becomes too thick, add in ½ cup of water and cook for a further 2 minutes.
- Garnish: with green onions and sesame seeds and serve.
Watch How to Make This Recipe
How to Serve and Store
This Asian takeout broccoli with garlic sauce can be eaten with steamed white rice, brown garlic rice, or rice noodles. Looking for a rice-free dish? No worries. You can serve it with pasta or anything else you like.
If you’re left with leftovers, you can store the takeout style broccoli in an airtight container. Be sure to eat it later or the next day as it’ll become soggy and tasteless as the days pass.
Also, you can marinate the broccoli and place it in the fridge in the morning if you’re short on time. Just take it out when it’s time to cook, stir fry the broccoli, and mix in the sauce and dinner will be ready in a jiffy.
What Else You Can Do
You can jazz things up in this broccoli with garlic by using a combination of dark soy sauce and Hoisin sauce. To add more spiciness, you can use white pepper, more chili flakes, or even red chili paste.
As for the sweet factor, you can use maple syrup if you don’t have vegan honey and want to make it sugar-free. Some recipes even use tofu with broccoli and you can use it too if you want. Also, you can replace the ½ cup of water with vegetable broth. It’ll boost the flavor of your dish.
Make it Gluten Free: You can use Tamari sauce instead of soy sauce, and tapioca flour instead of plain flour to make this recipe Gluten-Free.
Quick Tips
Follow these tips to make delicious Asian takeout broccoli with garlic sauce.
- To check if Broccoli is fresh, you need to look at the bottom of its stem. It should be white and not yellow and the branches shouldn’t be hollow or with brown lines or marks.
- While the broccoli is being stirred fried, continuously keep stirring it or the pieces might burn.
- If you want the broccoli to be crunchy, once it is stir-fried take it out, make the sauce, and once the sauce is ready add the cooked broccoli florets into the sauce and turn off the heat.
- If you want them soft and mushy, you can cook the broccoli in the sauce for more time but crisp broccoli tastes better.
Broccoli in Garlic Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 (1 pound) Broccoli
- 1 Tbs Sunflower Oil
Broccoli Marinade
- ¼ Cup Flour
- ½ Tsp Paprika powder
- ¼ Tsp Garlic powder
- 1 Tsp Salt
- 3 Tbs Plant-based milk
Sticky Garlic Sauce
- ¼ Cup Soy Sauce/Tamari sauce
- ¼ Cup Vegan Honey / Brown Sugar
- ½ Tbs Sesame Oil
- ½ Tbs Rice Vinegar
- 2-3 Garlic Cloves (Chopped)
- ¼ Tsp Red Chili Flakes
- ½ Tsp Sesame Seeds
- ½ Tbs Corn Starch
Garnish
- Spring Onions
- Sesame Seeds
Instructions
- Cut the broccoli in florets into bite-sized pieces. Also, cut the tender stems.
- In a zip lock bag add broccoli pieces, and all broccoli marinade ingredients except the plant based milk. Shake the bag well to mix everything so that the flour and spices distribute well. Next add the milk and shake it again to coat the broccoli florets with marinade properly.
- In a pan, heat the oil and add the marinated broccoli and stir fry on medium heat for about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in another bowl, whisk together all the sauce ingredients. Mix them with a hand beater and make sure there are no corn starch lumps.
- Once Broccoli florets are done in about 3 to 5 minutes add the prepared sauce ingredients.
- Add half a cup of water or vegetable stock because it will get to thick and will not coat the florets properly. Cook for another 2 minutes.
- You can cook the sauce in a separate pan and then mix with stir fried broccoli florets, if you want more crunch in your broccoli.
- Garnish with sliced spring onions (green part) and sesame seeds.
- Serve hot with rice noodles, steamed white rice or cilantro fried rice.
Notes
- You can use Tamari sauce instead of soy sauce, and tapioca flour instead of plain flour to make this recipe Gluten Free.
- If you want the broccoli to be crunchy, once it is stir-fried take it out, make the sauce, and once the sauce is ready add the cooked broccoli florets into the sauce and turn off the heat.
- If you want them soft and mushy, you can cook the broccoli in the sauce for more time but crisp broccoli tastes better.
This broccoli with garlic sauce recipe is an inspiration and it’ll make both you and your family smile. It’s vegan, it’s cool and it is unbelievably tasty!
