Broccoli & Garlic

Here is an easy recipe that we make over and over again. In fact, it is Delaina’s favorite way to eat broccoli, and THAT  alone is saying something….

What is so special about it?

Well,  when you oven roast stuff (like fish, meat,  vegies etc…), the high heat sorta “sears” in the juices inside and usually gives it  nice brown-ish crusty coloring on some edges that just taste yummy.  This way also seems to concentrate the flavors in a very pleasant way as well.

Many of us are used to eating watery vegies that have been boiled (to death usually) or steamed, I know we used to steam our vegetables all the time.  Now to be fair, we still do steam vegetables on occasion, we just have a preferred cooking method for vegetables now, and that is oven roasted.

In fact, this method of cooking (Oven Roasting) is a great way to cook all sorts of vegetables.  So try this way the next time you are cooking broccoli and see what you think.  Then try it again with asparagus, green beans or carrots (just wonderful…).

Oven roasting works best with fresh vegetables. So here is an opportunity to cook those extra vegies that you get at the farmer’s market… You know… the ones you bought and bought  and then came home and said, “why did we buy all this XXXX”??    Yes, we do that too….

Warning: This is TASTY… You will love it!

Another bonus with oven roasting vegetables…. it is SUPER EASY.  One pan, in the oven for 30 minutes (more or less).  This way you can keep your eye on other more “needy” dishes on the stove.

Ingredients:

• Fresh Broccoli, enough to feed the number of folks you are cooking for.
• Garlic cloves (OK this is an optional ingredient, but it just tastes FANTASTIC with the broccoli)
• Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil

Here is How to Make Oven Roasted Broccoli:

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Line a baking pan with aluminum  foil  -as large a pan as you need for the amount of broccoli you will cook so that the broccoli  will be in a single layer).

3. Rinse and trim the broccoli. This means I usually cut off any woody steams (maybe an inch or two from the bottom) and trim the broccoli into pieces so that the stems are no thicker than 1 inch. Dry with a clean kitchen towel to remove most of the moisture.

4. Separate the head of garlic into cloves. Remove the outer paper and cut the cloves in half, the long way. (so you have flat “coins” of garlic.

5. Place broccoli and garlic into a bowl, and toss with a spoon or two of olive oil until all the broccoli and garlic have a thin coat of oil.  Sprinkle  with salt and pepper and toss again.

Ready for the oven

6. Pour the broccoli and garlic into the foil lined pan. Place pan in the center of the hot oven. Let cook for 15 minutes, then stir the pan, and prick the broccoli with a fork to check the tenderness. Cook for 10 more minutes then stir and  check again for tenderness.

7. Remove when the broccoli is tender and has some brownish spots… and the garlic should also be brown in places and tender as well.

After Oven Roasting

OK so this is NOT our best photo, but I wanted you to TRY and see that the brown patches on the garlic and the fact that the broccoli is darker in some areas….  We gobbled up the whole batch of broccoli before we realized that this picture was a bit dark…. sorry…. I guess we will have to make another batch soon to try and get a decent photo….YUM!

8. ENJOY!

We hope you get a chance to try to make Oven Roasted Broccoli … or Oven Roasted Vegies of any kind, before it gets too hot to have the oven on in the kitchen for that long.

Let us know how it went, and what you thought of this recipe….