This is one of very many super healthy dishes that my mother always made. I’ve been brought up to eat very healthy since I was young, and during the past year at university I’ve realized exactly how very healthy compared to the average student. I remember I used to (and still do) be flabbergasted as a kid whenever I was served pizza, taco or lasagne at friends’ houses. Not because it was western food, but just because it was… well, very fatty. In my house, fatty food was something we had to earn the right to have — like a snack. Whenever it was served as dinner, it didn’t feel like dinner. It was just some yummy, but very filling snack and my tummy wouldn’t be satisfied until the next day when I had some normal, healthy food again.

I eat and cook very healthy automatically thanks to my wonderful mother, and I will actually be physically sick if I have not-so-healthy food a couple days straight. A big, yummy portion of something healthy always tends to straighten up my body again though, and did you know that whenever I snack I prefer fruits? Lots and lots of it too! If I go a day without my daily portion of fruits I feel ugh.

Nevertheless I thought I could try sharing some of my recipes since so many students tend to not know what they should do with a pan and spatula and therefore opt for the easiest solution by throwing a pizza in the oven. Or they’re just too busy. Or they just don’t know how to cook healthy without it tasting goo. However, this recipe is very easy and shouldn’t take you too long to cook (the bigger the slices, the longer the cooking time). Judging from having cooked for my university flat mates the past year, healthy food do seem to be a winner with the taste buds so it shouldn’t be a matter of taste! Bon apetite!

Serves 2 people (girl portions)
Oil
1/2 onion
200g high quality beef (or just normal frying beef, we students are on a tight budget)
1 broccoli
Nuoc mam (fish sauce)
Salt
Pepper

• Peel the onion and cut both onion and beef in thin slices, the broccoli in small bouquets
• Add a bit of oil in a pan and fry the onion on high heat unil golden
• Add in the beef and cook until almost done
• When some of the beef slices are only slightly pink and the juices are leaking, add in the broccoli and make sure the broccoli is on the bottom and the beef on top. Turn the heat down to medium-low. The trick is to make sure the broccoli soaks up the juices (this will flavour the broccoli)
• Have a few spritzes of the fish sauce (start with 2 spritzes), add a pinch or two of salt and pepper and let it simmer until the broccoli is soft enough to be sliced with your spatula. You can add a bit of water as well if you think the meat juice is evaporating too fast.
• Have a bite of a broccoli — add more fish sauce and/or salt and pepper according to taste. When the broccoli has achieved a pleasant flavour, it’s finished.
• Serve with rice!

You can substitute the beef for pork if you like that better, or skip the broccoli and just serve the beef on top of fresh lettuce leaves and have rice in a separate bowl (don’t skip the fish sauce, salt and pepper!). You can get the fish sauce in most oriental stores!