This easy roasted broccoli side dish is punched up with a tangy and herby caper pesto and makes for a beautiful presentation on your holiday table or for a weeknight dinner. It’s bulked up with some roasted cabbage to allow for a larger low FODMAP portion, but it’s truly the best side dish for any dairy-free, gluten-free meal!
I don’t serve up vegetable side dish recipes on this site as often as I should, partially because I can get a little lazy when it comes to my own table. Usually, I’ll just keep things simple and roast one vegetable or another in the oven and call it a day.
But every once in a while, when I’m entertaining or bringing a side dish for a family holiday like Passover, I’ll get a little more creative with my usual roasted vegetable. And this broccoli and cabbage with caper pesto is exactly the right middle ground, with just a smidge more extra effort to make it special.
Broccoli is one of those medium FODMAP vegetables that a lot of people dealing with a sibo diet don’t feel like messing with. It can be hard to keep track of quantities, so easier often to just omit (unless you have someone to do the math for you, like I do in my low FODMAP cookbook!).
But that’s a huge shame since it makes for such an easy addition to low FODMAP vegetarian recipes. Luckily, I have a few strategies for making it into a vegetable side dish without ending up bloated at the end of your meal.
Is broccoli low FODMAP?
According to the Monash app, broccoli florets are low FODMAP in quantities of ¾ cup or 2.6 ounces per serving. This is pretty easy to accomplish if you have another vegetable in the mix or keep them as a side dish.
But I also have some other strategies for making broccoli lower in FODMAPS and part of an IBS diet.
Ingredients in this low FODMAP side dish:
Tips for stretching your low FODMAP broccoli
First, I remove as many of the tough stems as possible. The stems have a higher concentration of FODMAP’s than the leafy florets. To do this, simply remove the massive thick stem. And then when you’re cutting the head into florets, chop off any additional longer pieces of stalk as you go.
The second strategy is combining my broccoli with an equal quantity of another low FODMAP vegetable so that the platter feels abundant. For this dish, I used thinly sliced cabbage, which almost end up looking like charred onion in the final dish. Another way to trick your palette into an abundance mindset!
If you don’t love cabbage, other low (or medium) fodmap options that take a similar amount of time to roast in the oven as broccoli: carrots, bok choy, and green beans. Feel free to substitute or add any of these in addition to the cabbage!
There’s another wonderful low fodmap veggie side with carrots and green beans in my SIBO book!
Finally, what makes this broccoli side dish really sing for low FODMAP folks—but really anyone looking for a super flavorful and gorgeous holiday side dish—is the SAUCE!
This caper pesto moonlights as a salsa verde and also a gremolata since it’s finished with lemon zest! I’ve used three different herbs here, but you can streamline if you don’t want to source that many bunches. I love the mint flavor in spring recipes and the chives really add that onion flavor that you miss in a pesto without garlic.
Instead of pine nuts (always too rich for my blood!), I use sunflower seeds in this pesto. They have a lovely texture and so many health benefits. Plus tend to be inexpensive. Other options include: almonds, walnuts or pumpkin seeds. I’ve made pestos with all of these alternatives and they each have their own way of singing with the herbs.
Finally, I think that the stealth key ingredient to any pesto is the lemon juice! I’ve added some here, but not as much as usual since the capers have so much of their own acidic punch.
If you don’t feel like making the pesto, this low FODMAP salad dressing would also be an easy swap or this dairy-free ranch dressing!
If you’re looking for more low FODMAP dinners to pair it with, I have plenty in the archives like this low FODMAP chicken, which together would be a perfect weeknight meal! Just finish it off with this low FODMAP dessert too.
More low fodmap recipes:
- Low fodmap tomato soup
- Low FODMAP pasta bolognese
- Low fodmap chicken shawarma casserole
- Low FODMAP oatmeal
- Easy Low FODMAP chicken curry
- Low fodmap chicken broth
Read on for this low FODMAP broccoli recipe with caper pesto!
With health and hedonism,
Phoebe
Roasted Broccoli with Caper Pesto (low FODMAP)
Ingredients
- 1 pound broccoli thick stems removed and cut into small florets (see note)
- 4 cups thinly sliced cabbage about half of a 1 1/2 pound head
- Olive oil
- Sea salt
- 1 lemon
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds
- 1 bunch chives or 4 green scallions roughly chopped
- 1 cup roughly chopped parsley leaves and stems
- ½ cup loosely packed mint leaves
- 2 tablespoons capers no need to drain them
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- On a parchment-lined baking sheet, toss the broccoli and cabbage with ¼ cup olive oil and 1 teaspoon salt. Arrange in an even layer and bake until charred and caramelized, tossing once halfway through, about 25 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the gremolata: zest the lemon and set aside.
- In a small food processor, combine the sunflower seeds, chives, parsley, mint and capers. Pulse until coarsely ground. Add the juice of half the lemon (about 2 tablespoons), 1/4 teaspoon salt and ¼ cup olive oil. Pulse a few more times until the texture of a chunky pesto. Taste for seasoning and add more salt as needed.
- To serve, pile the broccoli on a serving plate and dot with the herby caper pesto. Garnish with the lemon zest and serve warm or at room temperature.
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