Air Fryer Broccoli

The best quick and easy side dish is this Air Fryer Broccoli! Ready in under 15 minutes and perfectly cooked and seasoned. You will be making this one on a regular basis!

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Broccoli in the Air Fryer

This is a side dish I make so often that I am afraid my family is going to turn into broccoli. I mean you know the saying “You are what you eat”.

I make this dish so often for a number of reasons…

• It is so EASY
• talk about QUICK, it is ready in under 15 minutes
• let’s not forget it is broccoli which means it is NUTRITIOUS

So it is a win!

The ease of using the air fryer for a side dish like this can’t be beat. Plus the flavors are incredible!

Serve this broccoli with Air Fryer Garlic Butter Salmon or Ground Turkey Sloppy Joes for a full meal.

Or if you prefer a different method to make your broccoli you can try Roasted Broccoli or learn How to Steam Broccoli.

Equipment

Let’s talk air fryers! These days there are so many on the market and they now come in all different shapes and sizes.

I have the Ninja^® Air Fryer Max XL and that is what I use for all recipe testing. 

My air fryer has a circular basket and high walls, make it really easy to toss the items. 

If your air fryer is shaped a little different or more like an oven with a tray you will still need to toss the broccoli but a spatula to flip everything might be more useful.

I will also know my air fryer is 5.5 quart so I have no problem holding 8 cups of broccoli if needed, so make sure you scale your recipe if you have a smaller air fryer. (With this recipe you can really scale it to as much or as little as you want, just note to watch the time it might take less or more time.)

Ingredients

• Broccoli – For the broccoli you will want to make sure you cut the florets into bite size that are all about the same size. By cutting into a lot of different sizes you won’t get your broccoli to cook at an even rate.
• Olive Oil – We don’t use too much oil for this dish just enough to barely coat the broccoli, since it isn’t much you want to make sure you really toss it well to get it evenly over all of the broccoli.
• Kosher Salt – If you don’t have kosher salt you can substitute sea salt. If you have neither of those use half of the amount of table salt.
• Parmesan Cheese – I prefer fresh grating my parmesan and making sure it is finely grated. If the parmesan is finely grated it will be more likely to melt into the broccoli.
• Lemon – Just a light squeeze of lemon juice will really enhance the dish! If you don’t have a fresh lemon just omit the lemon juice.

For a complete detailed list of the ingredients continue towards the bottom of the page.

Instructions

Preheat your air fryer to 375º F.

Cut broccoli into bite size florets, making sure they are roughly all the same size. Add the broccoli to a large bowl.

Add the oil and salt to the broccoli and toss well to coat. 

Add the broccoli to the air fryer basket. Cook 7 to 9 minutes tossing about every 3 minutes, cook longer for a more crispy broccoli. 

Transfer cooked broccoli back to the bowl. Add the parmesan cheese and toss well. Sprinkle fresh lemon juice over the broccoli and toss one more time to disperse the lemon juice. Serve immediately.

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