The best broccoli of your life (seriously)!

Let me start by saying this is the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe for broccoli, but the O fam loved it SO much that I absolutely had to share it with you. As you know from a previous post, we joined a CSA for the fall and early winter. I know broccoli is a winter vegetable since it thrives in freezing temperatures and I wanted to do more with it than steam and salt it. So, I found this recipe on none other than …. you guessed it-Pinterest-and had to try it with some delicious fresh broccoli from the local farmer’s market last week. It definitely didn’t disappoint (as you can see from the title). I only bought a small head of broccoli and Dr O and I were both itching for more, so I would suggest buying more than you think you’ll want because this broccoli is about to ROCK YOUR WORLD 🙂

Here’s the ingredients line up

broccoli

garlic

parmesan

olive oil (or canola/vegetable oil)

lemon

salt

pepper

If you wash your broccoli, get it really, really dry before beginning the prep for this amazing side dish. This way it will develop a crisp outside that will blow your mind 🙂 Then cut it into florets

*Whew* Look at that gorgeous piece of local agriculture! (Go ahead and judge me, I’m being a total nerd right now!) Then line a cookie sheet with foil and drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil on it. You can just eyeball it. If you think you need more because you’re cooking a lot of broccoli, then add more! Throw some salt and pepper on there and begin mixing. Make sure the broccoli is pretty evenly coated with oil so you develop the crispness that makes this dish A-freaking-MAZING. Mince or slice some peeled garlic and add it. I think I added one clove for the one head of broccoli I had, so if I had more than one head I would use an extra clove per head.

Bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until you see some browning on the tops of the florets. When you bring it out of the oven, top with parmesan, lemon zest and a couple squeezes of lemon juice. Mix it up really well and serve! The Barefoot Contessa also adds pine nuts and basil. I have some fresh basil from the market this week and am trying to find pine nuts, so I’ll update if we have this broccoli with the added ingredients, but know that it is delicious without pine nuts and basil.

Dr O and I were both really upset when we had eaten all of it and I continued to talk about how good it was late into the night 🙂 (Yeah, we talk about food a lot in our house…especially after a yummy dinner). So, give this broccoli a try and better yet, go grab some from your local farmer’s market since it will be in season for quite a while!

Mrs O