Imagine the stupidity of taking on the blogging challenge of cooking five Tenderstem Broccoli recipes when you don't have a kitchen? What was I thinking! Thankfully the Tenderstem Around the World Challenge came with the opt out of staggering the dishes across a few weeks. I'm hoping nine weeks counts as a few...
My challenge kit arrived back in June just before we headed off to Italy on holiday. Returning to a distinct lack of kitchen facilities I decided to tackle the first recipe. Asian Sticky Salmon with Tenderstem Two Ways. Our broccoli was only one way, as I only had one camping stove ring to work with! The dish went down really well with all except girl who refused to eat the broccoli stems despite my assurances that the trunks tasted just as nice as the leaves.
Still without kitchen I next attempted One-pan Bake with Italian Style Lemony Pork Meatballs, Tenderstem and Roast Squash. I cooked this on the convection setting of our combination microwave which worked reasonably well but some of the chunks of butternut squash were still a bit on the hard side. This was however the first time I'd ever cooked squash without peeling it, will definately do that again. Much less hassle to prep. The dish itself was really quick and easy to make - a perfect one pan supper. This time I'd bought Tenderstem Tips which seems to kinda defeat the purpose but girl was happy to eat them.
Mexican Beef & Tenderstem Fajitas were the first dish to be cooked on my new induction hob. Still no finished kitchen but a working hob and ovens at last. I absolutely loved the Tenderstem in a fajita and would definitely include it again. It added a completely different texture to the dish and really bulked it out.
The day before the kitchen floor was due to be laid we had Spanish Baked Paella with Prawns, Tenderstem and Peppers. This was a big hit with the whole family. Girl loved the prawns but still no luck in persuading her to eat the stems no matter how tasty I told her they were.
Last dish to be tried was Moroccan Chicken & Tenderstem Tagine. By this point we almost had a finished kitchen and were able to eat round the dining table. I swapped out the chicken for cubed lamb leg steaks. The flavours in this were amazing and the cous cous soaked up the spicy juices a treat.
I thoroughly enjoyed the whole Tenderstem Experience even in challenging circumstances at times. I'm sure that the Paella and Tagine in particular will become regularly made family favourites. As for introducing my slightly picky eater to Tenderstem? Alas she still can't be convinced to try the trunks. But she did love the funky activity tablemats and colouring pens.
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Disclaimer: Tenderstem provided me with shopping vouchers to buy the ingredients required for this post. All views expressed are my own.
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