Broccoli Bites
4.85 from 20 votes
Course: Appetizer, Snack
Cuisine: American, meal prep
Keyword: free, freezer friendly, gluten free, meal prep, snack, under 10 ingredients, under 500 calories
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 48 bites
Calories: 16kcal
These Broccoli Bites are the most highly palatable form of vegetables I have ever encountered. If you are looking for an easy way to get in more vegetables, this recipe is it. If you have a food processor these can probably be prepared in minutes.
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Ingredients
- 2 lbs (908 g) frozen broccoli
- ½ medium (100 g) onion
- 1 cup (120 g) maseca
- 3 tsp (12 g) garlic powder
- 1⅓ tsp (8 g) salt
- 2 tsp (4 g) pepper
- ¼ cup (60 g) water
- (10 g) oil spray optional for reheating
Instructions
For the Broccoli Bites
- Thaw out your broccoli in the microwave.
- NOTE: If you have a food processor you can probably just add all of the ingredients (minus the oil spray) and pulse it until it forms a "dough".
- If you don't have a food processor, pour out all of your broccoli onto a cutting board and chop it as fine as you reasonably can.
- Cut your onion into as small of a dice as you can.
- In a large bowl, add the broccoli, onion, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and maseca. Mix to combine.
- Add in the water and stir to hydrate. Keep moving everything around until the maseca becomes sticky and a dough like consistency starts to form.
- Line a large baking sheet (I used 17"x11") with foil or parchment and spread out the broccoli mix. Press it into all sides of the sheet pan to get a dense, thin product.
- The thinner you make these the crispier they will get in the air fryer. If your sheet pan is too small and you try to fit the entire mixture on to it, your final bites will probably be too thick. It may be necessary in this case to use two sheet pans. You want about ⅛"-¼" in thickness.
- Place the sheet pan into the freezer and allow it to freeze until solid. This will make it a breeze to form into pieces. You would have to do it by hand otherwise which would get messy and time consuming.
- You can just form them by hand and air fry immediately if you don't need them for Snack City.
- Once frozen solid, remove from the pan and cut into 48 pieces. I achieved this by cutting it into 8 rows and 6 columns.
- Transfer the bites to a ziplock bag and store them inside of Snack City in your freezer.
Cooking and Serving
- Preheat your air fryer to 400°F. Place the frozen broccoli bites into the air fryer. (Spray with oil if you wish). Air fry for 16-20 minutes, flipping half way. Cooking times may vary depending on thickness, just keep an eye on them.
- Serve your broccoli bites with a bit of pasta sauce for dipping. Choose your favorited jarred sauce at the store.
- Note that the nutrition information doesn't include the pasta sauce, just the broccoli bites.
Video
Nutrition
Calories: 16kcal | Carbohydrates: 3.2g | Protein: 0.5g | Fat: 0.1g
NUTRITION INFO
The information in the following table are estimates for the total nutrition of the recipe, as written. If you follow the recipe listed above, as written, you can use these tables to determine the nutrition information if you wanted to split the recipe, as written, into more or less servings than what is originally listed. If you update the number of servings in the “Servings” field of the recipe above, the information in these tables are no longer accurate as you have updated the ingredients.
Servings
Carbs
151.9g
Protein
23.3g
Fat
4.7g
Calories
743.1 cals
This Post Has 13 Comments
What is the cooking option if you don’t have an air fryer?
I would use a convection oven
Any sub for Maseca? We don’t have this in EU. Regular corn flour maybe?
That should probably be fine
In EU you’ll wanna use fine cornmeal/maize meal, that’s the same thing as this product.
Corn flour would be too fine/starchy and would create a different texture since it’s what NA calls cornstarch
I put mine in my air fryer with the temperature you say, but they won’t become crispy. I ended up leaving them 2x the time and they are still not crispy (they seem quite soggy, in fact). Is there something I’m doing wrong? I did add a spritz of olive oil on top. Thank you!
are they too thick?
Possible with fresh broccoli? I am about to have a considerable amount
you would need to steam it first
Your recipe has nutrition facts for one serving, but you don’t list how much one serving is. Is it all 48 bites? 1 bite?
10 bites per serving, with marinara sauce at 177 cal
For some reason when I was prepping for this recipe my eyes didn’t register the broccoli part right and I used fresh (pulsed until flour consistency) instead of frozen, I ended up having to adjust the water by 1/2 cup to make up for the lack of water from bring frozen, the masa harina by 1 tablespoon, added a tablespoon of chili powder and red pepper flakes.
I was concerned about the end result but they came out amazingly well in the air fryer.
Thank you for sharing this recipe, look forward to trying more as I continue my journey of eating only food I prepare at home.
Great. Made it with almond flour and baked 350 degree oven, 5 min each side. Light brown. Longer if you want crunchy.