It always seems as if I am in shortage of side dish recipes. I find this amazing chicken recipe and then hmm….what to make with it? I feel like I stick with the same old, same old sometimes and quite frankly, it gets a little boring! My goal as of late is to find and create some great, memorable side dish recipes. I got used to making steamed broccoli so much that I literally changed my kids from liking it to not liking it so much! When I made this recipe, my girls whole heartedly agreed that if I made the broccoli like this each time, they would have no problem eating it all! (Which they did!) I love vegetables myself, although I prefer cooked over raw unless the raw veggies are in a salad with a really good dressing. I especially like crisp cooked vegetables. There is nothing better than pan fried zucchini, or asparagus roasted in the oven until it is crispy on the edges and slightly browned. Yum. This recipe is like that. You are going to slightly steam the broccoli and then oven roast it with a little olive oil until it is crisp and tender. The pine nuts are definitely my favorite part of the whole thing so don’t leave them out! This recipe would go great with a grilled fish or chicken. I served it with salmon and it was perfect!
Oven Roasted Broccoli
8 cups of fresh broccoli florets, lightly steamed*
4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
5 tblsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tblsp fresh lemon juice
3 tblsp pine nuts, toasted*
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
2 tblsp thinly sliced basil
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place the florets in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray or parchment paper. Toss the garlic onto the broccoli and drizzle with olive oil.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 15-20 minutes or until broccoli is tender and slightly browned and crisp at the edges. Remove from oven. Sprinkle with lemon juice, pine nuts, parmesan cheese and basil.
*I use fresh broccoli from the store and cut it into florets, then lightly steam in my vegetable steamer. It is really the best option, but if you are crunched for time you can also use a package of steam fresh broccoli that you microwaved (just microwave it about 2-3 minutes less than the package says). I cannot promise you the same delicious results as fresh broccoli, but it will still be good. If you still want to use fresh, but do not have a vegetable steamer-I highly recommend you purchase one, they are the best! No really, you can also steam the broccoli by placing the vegetables in a microwave-safe bowl, add2 tblsp water and cover the bowl with microwave safe plastic wrap, leaving one corner open to vent. Steam for about 3 minutes.
*I like to keep a batch of toasted pine nuts on hand for recipes just like this one. If you don’t do that, you can lightly toast pine nuts, and any nut for that matter in the oven on a cookie sheet or on the stove top in a fry pan. Whateve the method, nuts toast really fast! Check on them after 5 minutes and then every minute after that. When they are slightly browned and aromatic, remove them from the oven and put them on a cooled plate or bowl to cool. If you leave them on the pan, they will continue toasting, and sometimes burn! A quickie method for this recipe is to throw them on top of the roasting broccoli in the oven for the last 5-6 minutes of baking. They will toast right up without the hassle of toasting separately.
Recipe adapted by Girl and her Kitchen from Barefoot Contessa
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