Eat your veggies... roasted style!

8 new recipes came out of the kitchen this week... Jeff chose the favorites this week and they where the Beef and Spinach Pizza, White Chocolate-Raspberry Cheesecake Bars and that Broccoli, Ham, Mac and Cheese Soup.

With lots of havoc planned for the kitchen this upcoming week, I'm not sure how much I'll be able to update the site for the next few days. We are in the middle of the Holiday Baking Spree we do every year and I have a number of treats to get made and ready to ship out. I'll do my best to keep this site flowin' though!

Last week, I made this Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower with Lemon and Garlic as a side to serve along side a simple baked protein dish. However, time got away from me (imagine that!) and I didn't get a chance to talk about it!

Both of us love roasted vegetables, however we don't make them nearly as much as we should. While there really isn't much work involved with this, I did need to do a bit of prep work to get the vegetables ready. To get the most of the broccoli, we broke down the large green head into florets, then peeled the stalks to remove the tough coating. This reveals the tender flesh underneath that can be thinly sliced and tossed into the mix, rather than tossing it away (which is what I used to do years ago before I knew better!).

Once that was done and we tackled the cauliflower, we tossed them with a mess of thinly sliced cloves of garlic and rounds of fresh lemon. After we drizzled the mass with a bit of oil and seasoned with salt and fresh ground black pepper, we divided the mixture between two baking sheets so the vegetables had some room to breath since there is quite a bit of food here. Halfway through roasting, be sure to toss the vegetables around and rotate the pans to ensure they are evenly cooked and browned.

Tender, but not mushy (which as you know Jeff detests!), I thought the kiss of lemon those fresh rounds added to the vegetables was really quite lovely. The slices of garlic turned golden and slightly crisp, which mellowed out their harsh rawness and let the sweetness shine through. If you've never had a chance to try roasting vegetables, you must give it a try - while concentrating their flavors, the veggies caramelize as their natural sugars release, creating such a complex dimension that you might be a little sad when you realize what you have been missing out on! Now, you could probably get around four good servings out of this, but between Jeff and I, we kept going back for a few extra pieces and we only ended up with maybe half of a serving leftover!

Recipes
Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower with Lemon and Garlic