Roasted Broccoli

So a nice friend would give you, on this week of Thanksgiving, a great recipe that was easy, could be made in advance, would economize on oven space, and would become a new favorite at your Thanksgiving table (we are not even going to get into how hard it is to introduce new foods at the Thanksgiving table. I'd rather perform a root canal on a cat).

But, no, I'm not going to give you any of those things. I'm going to tell you about roasted broccoli.

I roast probably 75% of the vegetables I make and I have the blackened pans to show for it. I love this method because it's really tasty, really easy, usually goes along with whatever else is going in the oven, and works great with a lot of different vegetables. I have made converts out of vegetable haters with this method.

Roasted Broccoli

About 1 pound Broccoli (You can use the entire piece of broccoli: stem, leaves, and florets. When broccoli is in season at my local farmstand, it comes with lots of leaves attached which is my favorite part. The leaves get all crispy and crunchy)

2 Tbls. olive oil

1 tsp. finely minced garlic (1/2 tsp. of the jar stuff) (optional)*

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450'. Chop the florets into bite-size pieces. Peel the tough part of the stem and cut into 1/2 inch thick circles. Place on baking sheet with leaves and drizzle the olive oil over the broccoli and toss to coat completely. Season with salt and pepper. Shake the pan to make a single layer. Roast 10 minutes, then stir. Roast another 5-10 minutes until done. Serves 4.

*I see a lot of recipes that call for tossing the garlic in at the begining but I can never keep mine from burning, so I either throw the garlic in during the last 5 minutes or wait until it comes out of the oven and sprinkle it with a little garlic salt.