Braised shiitake mushrooms with broccoli is easily one of my favourite mushroom dish. Very tasty and healthy, these braised shiitake mushrooms have a rich, smoky flavor and they are high in vitamins and minerals like copper, selenium, zinc, manganese, choline, vitamin B6, B3, D and many more.
Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms before cooking. Retain the soaking water for braising as it will enhance the flavor of the braising liquid.
For this braised shiitake mushrooms with broccoli recipe, I added some dried scallops for extra texture and flavor. Sometimes I’ll add black moss but my children do not enjoy eating it so I decided to cook with dried scallops this time.
Dried scallops, as with other dried foods, have very concentrated flavors and they give considerable depth to any dishes that you add them in. I love their natural sweetness and oceany taste. They’re expensive so I save them for dishes such as this and also in some of my favourite soups.
To soften dried scallops, soak them in hot water till they are soft enough for you to shred them into little pieces. Be sure to retain the soaking water as it is very flavorful and you can use it as part of the braised mushrooms.
Besides dried scallops, this braised mushroom dish is also very tasty paired with other ingredients like abalone, sea cucumber, black moss, dried/fresh scallops and dried oysters among others.
The aroma from the mushrooms braising in the pot is simply wonderful. They smell very woody, earthy and appetizing. Don’t go overboard with the seasonings or it will be too salty. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings towards the end.
Braise the mushrooms until the sauce has reduced to about a quarter. Usually, it will take about 1 hour or so depending on the amount of mushrooms and water used to cook. This dish keeps well in the refrigerator and you can use any excess braising liquid for other dishes like noodles, etc.
- 2 heads of broccoli - washed and cut into florets
- 20 dried Chinese mushrooms (soaked till softened and retain soaking water)
- 4 cloves of garlic - skin removed and chopped
- 5 dried scallops (soaked overnight and retain soaking water)
- 3 tbsp cooking oil
- Marinate (for mushrooms):
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- Seasonings for braising:
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- ½ tsp salt - or to taste
- 1 cube of rock sugar - or to taste
- To prepare mushrooms, cut off the stems and squeeze out some of the water. Mix the mushrooms with the marinade ingredients and set aside for about 15-20 minutes.
- Heat up oil in a medium sized pot. Stir-fry the chopped garlic till fragrant. No need to brown. Then add in the dried scallops and continue to stir fry for awhile.
- Add in mushrooms and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes. Pour in the oyster sauce and light soy sauce and continue to stir-fry. Pour in reserved mushroom water and dried scallop water. Mix everything well and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, lower heat and simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour until the mushrooms are soft and the sauce reduced considerably (about ¼).
- While braising the mushrooms, prepare to blanch the broccoli in boiling water. Add 1 tsp of cooking oil and 1 tsp of salt into the water. Blanch broccoli for about 1-2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and arrange on a serving plate to form an outer circle.
- Taste the mushrooms and sauce before you turn off the gas. Adjust the seasonings if necessary. When ready to serve, arrange the mushrooms in the center of the serving plate and pour some of the gravy over the mushrooms. Serve hot.
2. You can also use abalones, sea cucumbers or dried oysters in place of dried scallops.
3. Broccoli may be replaced with other vegetables (lettuce, bok choy, etc)
Adjust amount of mushrooms according to the number of people eating.
Good afternoon Yvonne,
You have a mouth watering website, the great pictures made me really having a huge appetite.
I chose this recipe as I eat broccoli raw and also cooked and I have also used these mushrooms. With your tips I am sure that my next cooking adventure will be a huge success.
Regards, Taetske
Amazing recipe. Looks really tasty and I would love to try your recipe. Me and my wife should try this as we only do braised beef recipe. I also have my Filipino recipe blog and I would be very glad to try and post it on my site of course with your recommendation. Glad I’ve seen this recipe. Great post! Cheers!
Hi Charred,
I’m glad to hear that you’d like to try this braised shiitake mushroom with broccoli recipe. I hope that you and your wife will like it. Yes, you can post it on your site but please write it in your own words and link to my post. Thanks! 🙂
Great Recipe Yvonne,
I love Shiitake mushrooms and your method of preparation looks like it is sure to bring out the maximum flavor & the gravy looks divine. If it serves 6 then there’s sure to be leftovers in my small household.
I love how healthy and rich in vitamins it is too.
This dish refrigerates beautifully if you have any leftovers. They taste great the next day too 🙂
Oh boy, Yvonne, that looks terrific! And here in Ontario, Canada, we’re coming up on soup season – it’s about to get cold out! This will be a great recipe to try. Thank you for sharing. It looks fabulous.
Best wishes,
Kevin
I loved the website and how detailed you were in the cooking process. I live in a place that is very limited on those types of ingredients, is there a place to order dried shiitake mushrooms online? Very nice website!
Hi Bobby,
Welcome to Souper Diaries! Dried shiitake mushrooms can usually be found in Asian grocery stores. You can also order online from here. Thanks for your comments and see you again! 🙂
That looks delicious!! I like how you set the scene before giving the goods on the recipe but now my tummy is rumbling! lol. I don’t like scallops though, is there anything else that I can replace them with or do you taste them? Is the texture going to be the same as fresh scallops also?
Hi Marlinda,
The texture of the dried scallops is different from fresh scallops. Btw, fresh scallops can be used in this dish but add them towards the end as they cook very quickly. Other suggestions that you can include in this dish : Enoki mushrooms, canned abalone and sea cucumber. Even without these additional ingredients, the braised mushroom is already tasty on its own. Hope that helps.
hi Yvonne
wow this looks good! I thought the mushrooms were meat at first! I work close to Chinatown (like a block away) so I have often seen those mushrooms in the different stores there. I love how simple your braising recipe is. I have never tried dried scallops so not sure how I feel about them. But I could add a bit to begin with to get adjusted to the taste. healthy dish all around!
Thanks Emily! They are mushrooms but they do taste a little meaty. You can cook this dish without the dried scallops too if you wish. I hope you’ll try out this recipe! 🙂
WoW!!!
Great detail & suggestions for optional additions to this dish. What a spectacular recipe! I can’t wait to give this one a try.
I really appreciate what you have here. So glad I reviewed your page. Thank You!
Hi Ronald,
Thank you for your kind comments. Hope you’ll enjoy the recipe and do visit again! 🙂
That is a mouth watering dish, Yvonne. I love braised shiitake mushrooms with broccoli. I always order this dish when I’m out with my wife.
Now I can prepare this dish at my home. A simple cook. Thank you for giving me an easy recipe.
You’re welcome Arief. I love this dish too. Hope you’ll enjoy the recipe and happy cooking!
Hi Yvonne. This looks absolutely delicious! I am most definitely going to give this one a try. Your cooking instructions seem very clear so I am sure I will get it right. I will let you know how it goes.
Thanks very much.
Hi Gary, welcome to Souper Diaries. I hope you’ll enjoy this braised shiitake mushroom dish. If you have any questions on this dish, feel free to leave a comment and I will reply as soon as I can. Happy cooking 🙂
This dish looks amazing! I saved it to make it. I recently found out I’m diabetic and so this dish is perfect! I love broccoli and mushrooms so I can see myself eating this a couple times a day. I typically don’t like scallops but I’m wondering if I would like them shredded and not whole as an added flavor. But I’m thinking about using onion as well for flavor with the garlic because the two go well together. How many does this serve? I didn’t see that in the post.
Thank you Rawl. You may omit the scallops if you wish but it does add texture to the dish. This recipe (20 mushrooms) will serve about 10-15 people. It also depends on how many mushrooms each person takes. If you are using this recipe to cook for a smaller number of people, you can save the leftovers as it refrigerates well. Do let us know how the dish turns out for you! 🙂
Mmmmm this looks delicious. I have been getting into Chinese and East Asians cuisines since I started learning Chinese in school. I wish I had known of this recipe for Chinese New Year, as I tried a different Chinese dish that didn’t turn out so well. The ingredients are simple, the directions easy to follow, this will definitely be the next Chinese dish I prepare for dinner. I think I might add some Bok Choy microgreens. Thank you Yvonne.
Hi Ethan,
Thank you for your comments. Yes, bok choy will be a good vegetable choice for this dish too 🙂
This looks delicious! And very healthy. I can’t seem to find dried shitake mushrooms, so I’ve got Oyster mushrooms (fresh) instead, do you think it would work as well with oyster mushrooms? I am thinking to modify the cooking time to suit the different mushroom, perhaps braising them for 30-45 minutes. I’ll let you know how I get on. Great recipes and a lot of fun for CNY.
Hi Clare,
Welcome to Souper Diaries. Fresh oyster mushrooms are more suitable for quick stir-fries. For braised dishes, you’ll have to use the dried mushroom variety. Dried shiitake mushrooms are usually available in Asian grocery stalls and medical halls or the Asian section of your local supermarket. You can also find them online here. Thanks for your comments and do let me know if you have further questions.
Ah, OK, good to know that braising oyster mushrooms would not work so well. Actually I do know a large Asian supermarket here in Auckland that I can try for the shiitake. I’ll report back how the recipe turned out. Can’t wait to try it!