The BEST recipe for fresh broccoli with olive oil and garlic roasted in the oven at a super high temperature then topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
JUMP TO RECIPE
I mentioned this when I published my Better Broccoli Cheese Casserole but I LOVE broccoli. Like, maybe even abnormally so.
I like the crappy frozen stuff nuked in the microwave. I don’t mind it if it’s been overcooked in boiling water and it waterlogged and mushy. I love it steamed with just a little kosher salt. I like it raw in salads and veggie plates. I just love it.
But my favorite way to have it is like this… roasted in a crazy hot oven, slightly charred, then sprinkled with fresh parmesan and a little coarse gain salt.
While I love it with a passion, MY ENTIRE FAMILY hates it. They think it stinks when it’s cooking and make puke faces when they taste it. I feel personally offended that they don’t like broccoli. Like… how?
I’ve always loved broccoli roasted like this (and brussels sprouts too!) but I recently learned something about it on my favorite recipe site, Serious Eats (which focuses on the science of cooking).
By cooking the broccoli SUPER FAST at an EXTREMELY HIGH TEMPERATURE it prohibits the development of the characteristic bitter taste and sulfurous aroma and instead brings out a nutty, almost sweet flavor through caramelization.
You may wonder why I use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic in this recipe. I mean, it’s a kinda fancy recipe and garlic is one of the feature flavors, so why use the junky stuff, right?
The reason is that fresh garlic would burn and become very bitter cooked this hot for this long. Sooo… the powdered stuff, it is. If you're absolutely averse to this idea, you can sauté several cloves of fresh minced garlic in the olive oil before assembling the recipe. Just remove the garlic first.
Speaking of the olive oil... this may seem like a lot of oil but it really isn’t. 1/4 cup is only 4 tablespoons. That’s 4 tablespoons for 2 whole pounds of broccoli. One tablespoon for half a pound. That’s actually pretty sparse!
I may lose some of you here but before you start sending me hate mail, just hear me out. Don’t wash the broccoli. The broccoli needs to be bone-dry to cook properly this way.
But what about bacteria and germs and viruses and lions and tigers and bears?!
Well, here’s the thing... cold water isn’t going to kill any of those things. Well, you could drown a large mammal in cold water but that’s about it. So, other than rinsing off some sand or dirt, washing the broccoli doesn’t do anything. And I’ve never come across any grit in any broccoli I’ve ever purchased. Never.
DISHES TO SERVE WITH GARLIC PARMESAN ROASTED BROCCOLI
I like to serve this with sauced pasta dishes. I find that I eat way less pasta and actually like to serve a little sauce over the broccoli. Try it with:
- Homemade Spaghetti & Meat Sauce - A hearty classic Italian pasta sauce recipe made from scratch with sausage and ground beef. Perfect for feeding a crowd or stocking your freezer with an easy weeknight meal.
- Chicken Lazone - An easy recipe with Cajun roots made with seasoned chicken pan-fried until golden in butter finished with an easy creamy pan sauce served over pasta.
- Classic Chicken Cacciatore - An authentic Italian recipe for chicken braised in a rustic tomato sauce so tender it falls off the bone perfect over pasta or risotto.
- Chicken Parmesan - My tried-and-true recipe for crispy chicken cutlets breaded in parmesan and bread crumbs topped with gooey melted mozzarella over marinara sauce.
- Easy Shrimp with Pasta - A quick and easy pasta recipe with seasoned sauteed shrimp, your favorite pasta sauce and freshly grated parmesan!
- Bolognese Sauce - A rich Italian meat sauce recipe made with beef and pork with layers of flavor perfect over pasta or in lasagna.
Recipe for Garlic Parmesan Roasted Broccoli
Garlic Parmesan Roasted Broccoli
Ingredients
- 2 lbs broccoli florets
- 1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for pan
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon coarse grain salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Drizzle a few tablespoons olive oil in an extra-large sheet pan (or two standard size pans). Using your hands or a pastry brush, spread oil over pan to coat well.
- Cut florets in half lengthwise then add to the center of the pan, making a mound.
- Drizzle 1/4 cup olive oil over broccoli then gently toss to coat.
- Sprinkle garlic, salt and pepper over broccoli then toss again to evenly distribute the spices.
- Spread broccoli evenly over pan, turning florets so that cut side faces down.
- Bake at 500 degrees for 18-22 minutes or until deeply browned and crispy on the bottom and slightly charred on top. Watch closely as the bottoms will burn before the top side will. If your oven doesn’t distribute heat evenly, gently stir the broccoli halfway through cooking (moving the broccoli from the edges to the center and vice versa).
- Remove broccoli from oven then immediately sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese. Taste for seasoning then sprinkle with a little extra coarse grain salt if desired.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
123.57Fat
8.50 gSat. Fat
1.90 gCarbs
7.24 gFiber
3.88 gNet carbs
5.88 gProtein
4.63 gSodium
300.91 mg
Could you use frozen broccoli defrosted and blotted dry?
ReplyDeleteIt will work but the texture will be different. When the water in veggies freezes, it expands, which breaks down cell structure. I bet it will still taste delicious though!
DeleteThanks Mandy.
ReplyDeleteFavorite broccoli ever! We love it so much that we tend to just stand in the kitchen eating it right off the sheet pan, not even bothering to put it on our places. Haha! It's fabulous.
ReplyDelete