Quand le soleil se cache – Galettes de brocoli au cumin et feta, salade de haricots, avocat à la menthe

Believe it or not, this dish belongs to the express category. Today feeling exhausted and hungry, and not in the best mood, probably because of a foggy weather (San Francisco weather in the summer), like we say in French, “le ciel me tombe sur la tête“, the sky is falling on my head, which means that everything is so heavy that you have no energy.

I am dreaming on a relaxing vacation on a tropical island with white beach, some sun and nothing else. Since that is not possible right now, I decided to bring some sun inside the house, and what better to enlighten your day, than a vibrant and delicious vegetable dish?

Of course, being exhausted, I did not envision myself, spending hours cooking and cleaning afterwards. Mentally, it was impossible. So here we go, we have broccoli as the lead actor and a bunch of secondary vegetables that play an important role as well. Never undermined the role of a secondary actor, it changes the whole play.

The baby kale saute, is really optional, you could very well serve these galettes with the butter bean salad only. I was in the mood for some kale, and it complement this dish quite well, so I added it. It’s not essential.

Ingredients for 3-4

For the galettes

  • 2 cups broccoli floret (some stem too)
  • 1 tbs cumin seeds toasted
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • chili flakes (to taste)
  • 4 tbs feta, crumbled
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • salt and pepper
  • Greek yogurt (optional)

For the kale

  • 2 cups baby kale
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • salt and pepper

For the butter bean-avocado salad

  • 1 cup butter beans, cooked
  • 2 heirloom tomatoes, diced
  • 1/2 avocado, diced
  • 1 tbs fresh mint, chopped
  • 1 tsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • salt and pepper

Preparation

For the galettes

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook broccoli for about 3 minutes, until lightly cooked and  crunchy (if too cooked the broccoli will absorb too much water and the galettes will remain soggy). Drain and chop roughly. In a mixing container, mix broccoli, cumin and flour. Mix well all ingredients. Then add eggs and mix to obtain an homogenous mixture. Add garlic and chili and mix well. At the end, add feta carefully making sure not to break the pieces of feta. You need some unbroken pieces of feta in the galettes.

Heat oil in a large pan. Take some mixture (the equivalency of 2 tbs) and form small galettes. Cook on both sides until golden brown and cooked all the way through.

For the kale

Heat olive oil in a large pot, add garlic until fragrant. Add kale and cook at high heat until wilted. Adjust with salt and pepper.

For the butter bean-avocado salad

Mix all ingredients together, keep chilled.