I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

broccoli

Roasted Broccoli- The perfect side

The thing I miss most about our old apartment is our little yard with grill. We had to ditch all the behind for this new place but the one thing we would not give up was grilled broccoli. Since we no longer have a grill we have been roasting it. Sometimes you just need to improvise and change things up to make one of your favorite foods stay with you.  And since we had a gas grill (don’t judge, I have no patience to heat coal up on a nightly basis) I can’t tell the difference. Bliss.

 

I swear that grilled/roasted broccoli is life changing. I had it at a BBQ for the first time and I swear the world stopped for a moment and everything went into slow-mo around me as I inhaled a plate of it. Screw the steak, give me grilled broccoli. Roasting it produces the same crunchy bits on the floral part of the broccoli. The stalk still has some bite to it as well that makes you shudder at the thought of steaming broccoli ever again (unless you downed it in cheese). I’ve had it with some Parmesan cheese sprinkled over it once I’ve taken it out of the oven but swear the best way is just to have it with some lemon juice on it. I love lemon juice on it so I use 1/2 a lemon but you can adjust to your own taste, as well as the amount of juice that comes out of the lemon.

 

Roasted Broccoli

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

  • 2 large crowns of broccoli
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper, optional
  • 1 lemon

Process

  1. Preheat the oven to 375. Place a rack just above the center of the oven.
  2. Trim 1/4″ off the bottom stalk of the broccoli. Cut the broccoli into tree like segments.
  3. Add the broccoli to a large bowl. Drizzle the olive oil over the broccoli pieces, mix to coat. Evenly sprinkle the salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper evenly over the broccoli, mix to coat.
  4. Evenly spread the broccoli on a baking sheet.
  5. Roast for 20 minutes, mixing at least once at the half way point.
  6. When you remove the broccoli from the oven, squeeze 1/4-1/2 the lemon over the broccoli immediately.

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Light Cheddar Broccoli Soup

While driving back from a recent trip to Montreal, we stopped for lunch at Park Row Cafe in Waterbury, VT. This place served amazing sandwiches on home made bread, hot sandwich specials, and homemade soup. Price got a cup of their cheddar broccoli soup to go with this 1/2 a BLT. I had never had cheddar broccoli soup before. Why? Because I hate the smell of steamed broccoli. Any time I hear of broccoli as a side dish I think of overcooked cafeteria broccoli. But I tried and anyway and I LOVED IT. It was creamy, thick, cheesy, hearty, and the broccoli was not a stinky mess.


So I had to have this soup again. However the drive to Waterbury VT from Boston is not every convenient so I had to create a homemade version that would satisfy my craving. But, to make this soup more figure friendly I made it in the lightest way that I could, without having it watered down or using some (gross) non-fat cheese.

Since this soup is on the lighter side I felt it was best to cook the broccoli in the milk, compared to just added steamed broccoli to the soup. Why? I did not want to loose any flavor, or nutrients, in the discarded water used for steaming. While I have found that blending a light soup is the easiest way to make it “richer”, I decided not to do that since I wanted to have a bit more texture to the soup, but there is no restriction about blending the soup.

Light Cheddar Broccoli Soup

*serves 4-6*

Ingredients

  • 2 heads of broccoli
  • 3 cups of skim milk
  • 2 cups of chicken stock/vegetable broth
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
  • 3 cups of skim milk
  • 2 cups of chicken stock/vegetable broth
  • 8oz of shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese (I prefer to use Cabot Creamery Brand)
Process
 
  1. Finely chop 2 heads of broccoli, including steams. In a large pot, combine the milk broccoli and simmer until broccoli is tender.
  2. In a small pot, saute the onions with 2 tablespoons butter. Once the onions are translucent, sprinkle the flour in and mix with a wooden spoon until the flour has evenly covered the onions. Add the broth slowly and mix until all lumps of flour are broken down.
  3. Add the broth mixture into the large pot. Lastly, add in the cheese and mix until the cheese is melted and completely incorporated. Serve immediately.

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Thanks for visiting. Please leave me a comment to provide some feedback. I appreciate all the comments I receive.