I suppose defrosting it, then cutting to the required size, before putting in your freezer would be too easy?

As above, use something similar to a Cleaver, no teeth, just a sharp edge and a lot of power.

Use a cutting implement of your choice to create the perfect sized floret (an axe is the most fun), and then dip the friction heated end of the floret you wish to put back in the freezer into the pot of nitrogen any good cook has nowadays.

Essentially you’ve undertaken a surprise defrost/freeze cycle – as it should only take a few seconds, nasty microbes and wotnots shouldn’t have time to do whatever it is they do, as they would have been napping.

This is why I love this place

one more use for quantum torpedoes

oh, and I was once told there is minimal heating from lasers since the photons take any extra energy away with them.

defrosting it, then cutting to the required size, before putting in your freezer

I was sure the current thinking was that thawing food and then refreezing was unwise, as thebunk alluded to above. Does this apply to vegetables, specifically broccoli, or just to cooked foods and pieces of animal?

I quite enjoy the thought of the surgical ‘precision’ of using a cleaver and then flash-freezing the thawed cut in liquid nitrogen.

so as a broccytree lover your problem is the amount you’re getting… and you want to reduce that amount?!

sir, you’re not well.

moving on from my internet diagnosis, have you never heard the phrase “like a hot chainsaw through frozen brocolli florettes” before?

thawing isnt a problem, its the re-freezing with green vegetables… unless you’ve got a super cold section of your freezer that ‘fast-freezes’ the water inside the cells will expand slowly and burst.. thus making your veg floppy and rubbish.

Can you not just hack the small floret ends off the stalk with a big knife?

I don’t think thawing-refreezing is that bad for the broccoli in a bacterial sense, but it’ll ruin the individual cells and leave you with a kind of cold broccoli puree. It brings to mind the problem facing the Larkins in “The Darling Buds Of May”, Series 2, Episode 1 – “Oh! To Be In England”. All attempts to freeze the Larkin’s strawberries result in a delicious but soggy mess, due to the action of the slowly expanding water within the strawberry cells, as alluded to by philconsequence above. Charley solves this with deft use of liquid nitrogen, effectively freezing the strawberries double-quick and not giving the water inside chance to expand. Therein lies your solution. Defrost to cut, then refreeze with liquid nitrogen.

Surely what you need is a Broccolli Spear!

Couldn’t find a broccoli spear unfortunately, but I have found a broccoli catapult.
Doesn’t help with the immediate cutting issue but once you have found a way to cut it and grade it into suitable size parts then this gadget will be ideal.

I might regret this, but… Breadknife. We’ve got a massive Ikea one and it cuts frozen veg like a knife through very hard butter.

Though really the answer I want to give is