Recipes: 4 Cheap and Healthy Rapini (Broccoli Raab) Dinners
- September 14, 2008 by Fox | Comments: 9
My “better half” confused me yesterday by bringing home a new vegetable called Broccoli Raab [Rob] or Rapini [rah-PEE-nee]. In my quest to cook this green, I found this veggie is also called: broccoli rabe, rapa, rapine, rappi, rappone, turnip broccoli, broccoli de rabe, Italian turnip, and turnip broccoli. Whew!
Whatever you call this delicious broccoli rapini thinger, it’s not actually related to broccoli at all, but rather to the turnip family. It has small broccoli like florets with leaves like turnip greens. I felt inspired by this delicious and healthy vegetable so I’m sharing these four recipes with you: Easy Rapini with Garlic, Rapini with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Pine Nuts, Rapini with Quinoa and Glazed Carrots, Rapini and Rotini with Romano Beans. Enjoy the photographs!
Easy Rapini with Garlic
This is a simply delicious way to serve rapini as a side dish with your family dinner.
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch rapini, about 1 lb or 500 g
- 3 tbsp (50 mL) olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced or minced
- 1/4 tsp (1 mL) hot pepper flakes
- 1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
Instructions:
- Remove about 1/4 inch from base of rapini stalks. In deep skillet of boiling salted water, cover and cook rapini until tender, about 4 minutes. Drain and gently dry.
- In same skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute garlic and hot pepper flakes until garlic begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Add rapini and saute till warm.
Rapini with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Pine Nuts
This rapini recipe is a variation on the first. Easy, non?
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch rapini, about 1 lb or 500 g
- 3 tbsp (50 mL) olive oil
- 2 tbsp (25 mL) pine nuts
- 3 tbsp (50 mL) chopped sun-dried tomatoes
- 1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
Instructions:
- Remove about 1/4 inch from base of rapini stalks. In deep skillet of boiling salted water, cover and cook rapini until tender, about 4 minutes. Drain and gently dry.
- In same skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Toast pine nuts over low heat until light brown, about 4 minutes. Add cooked rapini and sun-dried tomatoes and heat. Makes 4 servings.
Rapini with Quinoa and Glazed Carrots
This is a wonderful dinner. If you’re not into quinoa then switch it for brown rice, or your choice of pasta!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (250 mL) quinoa
- 1/2 lb (250 g) rapini, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp (25 mL) olive oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp (20 mL) balsamic vinegar
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
Instructions:
- Cook quinoa. (See How to Cook Quinoa), or choice of pasta or brown rice.
- Remove about 1/4 inch from base of rapini stalks. In a skillet, saute the onion, carrot and garlic until the onions are slightly browned. Add the rapini and saute until they start to wilt. Remove from heat. Stir in the quinoa. Add the balsamic vinegar and lemon juice. Mix all ingredients together. Serve!
Rapini and Rotini with Romano Beans
Rapini with beans is a perfectly balanced vegetarian dish with protein. For a twist, serve with grated cheese.
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch rapini, about 1 lb or 500 g
- 4 cups (1 L) whole wheat rotini
- 1/3 cup (75 mL) olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
- Dash of hot pepper flakes
- 1 can (19 oz/540 mL) Romano beans, drained and rinsed. Or soak and cook dried beans.
Instructions:
- Remove about 1/4 inch from base of rapini stalks. In large pot of boiling lightly salted water, cover and cook rapini until tender, about 2 minutes. Transfer rapini with a slotted spoon into a colander (keeping water in pot). Chop rapini into 1 inch pieces and set aside.
- In same pot of boiling lightly salted water, cook pasta until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes. Reserve 1/2 cup (125 mL) of the cooking water. Drain pasta and return to pot.
- Meanwhile, in large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat and saute garlic and hot pepper flakes, until golden, about 1 minute. Stir in rapini and beans and heat through, about 3 minutes. Add to pasta and toss to coat. Add reserved cooking liquid (if desired). Serve.
There you have it! A once strange veggie is now a fond friend. Do you cook with broccoli rapini?
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Comments:
Talk about good timing! My husband bought what he thought was broccoli seedlings for our vegie garden a few months ago. It turned out it was rapini and we now have a whole bunch of thriving plants, but no idea how to use it
Some of the recipes I’d found weren’t all that inspiring, but yours look great. Can’t wait to try them out. Thanks so much 
What is it with husbands and rapini? So happy to have good timing for your garden.
I find the rapini a little on the bitter side since I was expecting it to taste more like broccoli. Mixing it with sun dried tomatoes really was flavorful. Enjoy!
You really have a gift for photographing food!
I haven’t seen rapini here in the UK, but those dishes of yours look delicious! I shall be keeping my eyes peeled…
Fox: Excellent photography. By just looking at photography, I am feeling hungry.
I just want to add from Indian prospective. Rapini (an Italian popular food) is considered as “SAAG” in Indian community and cooked with spinach, broccoli and methi (fenugreek leaves). It is the most popular dish for Punjab, India.
no, I don’t cook with it yet, but now I’m gonna! And would you please stop taking such gorgeous photos, it frustrates me that this food looks so good and I can’t eat it!
Thanks, Fox! I love broccoli rabe. It was introduced to me by some friends of Italian ancestry who prepare it as you do in recipe number one. You are right about it being a tad on the bitter side. To counteract that bitterness, I sometimes prepare it like recipe number one, adding in some toasted pine nuts and a handful per bunch of broccoli rabe of golden raisins or even regular raisins. This is a Sicilian-style prep for this vegetable, and it all tastes good together….garlic, veggie, nuts, raisins. I wasn’t convinced until I tried it. But that was the full extent of my broccoli rabe repertoire. Love your new ideas for using it and look forward to trying them. Thanks again.
It’s the first time that I have seen that vegetable. It looks good, I hope to try it soon.
My photography secret revealed: Use yummy foods, white plates, and lots of sunlight.
A sense of humor helps too ’cause one tends to look silly taking hundreds of rapini pictures!