There are no shortage of ways to prepare your vegetables to nourish your body and excite your taste buds, but it’s not often that your veggie scraps go to good use in a recipe. Typically with broccoli you’ll cook with the crown and throw the base into compost (not the trash)! But what if we told you there was a healthy and delicious way you could use your vegetable leftovers to make the most of your groceries and function as the perfect summer side dish?

From Nicole Berrie’s new cookbook Body Harmony, this broccoli stem salad is the ideal compliment to your picnic staples, complete with gut- and immune-supporting properties from the ginger and garlic.* Not to mention broccoli is high in satiating fiber, and it contains an array of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients.*

“The town I grew up in has a famous joint called Baumgart’s Café, which was part retro American diner, part Chinese restaurant,” Berrie shares in her book. “With [their] dumplings came this tangy broccoli stem salad that was so incredibly tart, so incredibly crunchy and garlicky, that I’ve always wanted to recreate it. They’ve since taken it off the menu, so here is your only chance," she writes.

Makes 1 to 2 servings

Note: You can let the stems sit in the pickling solution in an airtight container for up to a week. 

Recipe excerpt from the new book Body Harmony: Nourishing, Plant-Based Recipes for Intuitive Eating by Nicole Berrie, published by Abrams. Text copyright © 2022 by Nicole Berry. Photography by Sasha Israel.