Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 1-2
Difficulty: Peasy
Pans required: 1 x Lil’ Legacy Pan

Welcome back to Heirloom Recipes, where we recreate the favourite dishes of history’s most fascinating humans. Uncovering the stories and flavours that shaped the people who shaped us.

We’ve survived Capone’s pasta, simmered Johnny Cash’s chilli, and shared the Pope’s alfajores.

Today we step sideways into the kitchen of David Lynch to recreate his surreally simple favourite: Broccoli Quinoa.

It’s easy.

Or is it?

Actually, it is.

Before Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, and a lifetime of cinematic fever dreams, David Lynch was just a man with big hair and a recipe he made daily.

As the story goes, he didn’t inherit this recipe. The recipe inherited him.

It was late. Lynch was alone in the room when he heard it.

A hum. Like static.

It came from within the wallpaper.

The light in the room bent slightly and a small monkey in a suit stepped forward.

“You will need quinoa,” said the monkey. “And broccoli.”

“I don’t like broccoli.”

“How strange,” said the visitor. “Broccoli likes you.”

Then it was gone.

From that day on, David Lynch approached the dish the way he approached his films. With precision, mystery, and a spoon.

Ingredients

½ c quinoa
1 ½ c organic broccoli
1 cube vegetable bullion/stock
Braggs Liquid Aminos (or soy sauce)
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt

Method

Fill your Lil’ Legacy Pan with an inch of fresh water. Salt it well. Bring it to a steady boil.

Add the quinoa. Cover and reduce the heat. Simmer for about eight minutes, until the grains open and soften.

Add the chopped broccoli. Cover again and cook for five minutes more, until tender and vividly green.

Turn off the heat. Crumble in the bouillon and stir while everything is still hot.

Spoon into a bowl. Finish with Braggs or soy sauce and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Eat slowly. Listen to the broccoli. It has opinions.

Every great recipe deserves a soundtrack.

Here's a playlist to set the scene. Music from David Lynch's soundtracks and songs he loved. Press play. Grab your pan. And follow the recipe wherever it leads. Listen on Spotify.

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Heirloom Recipes is an independent editorial series inspired by recipes and stories in the public domain. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any individual, family, or estate featured. These recipes are our adaptations, created with care and respect for the lives behind them.

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