roasted broccoli & garlic

[octette]

tonight i roasted the crushed and peeled cloves from a whole head of garlic with the broccoli florets cut off of six heads of broccoli in about 1/4 c of olive oil.

in the oven at 375F for 45 minutes; every fifteen minutes i tossed the broccoli and garlic with a spoon to get more even cooking. as soon as they came out of the oven, i used a slotted spoon to put them in a bowl (cutting down on excess oil), and tossed with about 1/4 c of romano cheese i grated on a microplane.

the heat of the broccoli and garlic melted the cheese just enough so that it perfectly melded with the flavors of the broccoli and garlic, and it was just salty enough that i was glad i hadn't added salt while roasting.

it served huge portions to two people (as a side dish, it probably easily serves four). i served it with a variation of baked ziti, and the flavors complemented really well -- although as i was eating it, i was wishing for quinoa or cous cous instead of baked pasta.

next time i'd probably use two heads of garlic, because the crispy caramelized outsides and melty sweet garlicky insides of the cloves of garlic were so amazing that i could have easily eaten just a plain bowl of that.

i've been really skeptical of roasted broccoli up until now -- and honestly now i cannot even remember why, because it was so delicious.

Comments

[sid]

OMG, they are both so delicious roasted! I was skeptical the first time I heard of roasted garlic, but om nom nom was my exact reaction. *g* All veggies are so good roasted.

*sighs*

I am oven-less atm, but I wonder if I can cook broccoli at low speed in the microwave....

[octette]

well, you can definitely steam broccoli in the microwave (i've done it), but you have to be careful not to overcook it because it will get rubbery really quickly.

do you have a toaster oven? i sometimes roast small amounts of things in my toaster oven, and it always comes out really well. (in fact, tomorrow night i am roasting some asparagus in my toaster to use in a frittata!)

[sid]

No, let's see, I have a broiler and a grill and an electric skillet and a crockpot and a microwave. No toaster oven. But, yes, a toaster, lol!

[octette]

sorry -- i am not familiar with a broiler. is that like the broiler function in an oven-type thing, but without the regular oven parts? if so, you should totally be able to steam your broccoli a little, and then put it under your broiler to make the outside crispy/roasty.

[sid]

Yes, it's a broiler sans oven. I actually have a large broiler that's many. many decades old, which I'm a bit afraid to try using since it used to spark when initially plugged in even back in the day. Also I recently discovered in the house a small electrical appliance which has a burner on one side and a little grill/broiler on the other. I haven't experimented with that side yet!

The suggestion sounds like a good one. I bought broccoli over a week ago, and I'd better do something with it - fast.

[octette]

when all else fails, steam it in the microwave, and eat it with a mornay sauce and some pasta! instant (and delicious) mac and cheese.

[sid]

*Googles* Milk and cheese. Unfortunately I'm lactose intolerant, but I'm sure it's delicious! Hmm, maybe soymilk and less-cheese-than-called-for.

[octette]

i'm sure you are skilled at using soy products, but i'm going to write this out for people who are not and i'd love it if you add your experiences!

my experience with making non-dairy mornay sauce (i was vegan for many years):

• the roux needs more flour than the standard 1:1 ratio for butter, because butter has water in it that evaporates out, leaving about 70% of fat. so any roux recipe calling for a 1:1 ratio using butter will need more like a 1.3 or 1.5:1 ratio of flour to oil.
  
  
• because the oil isn't bringing as much flavor as butter does, i usually made more roux by about a third, and then cooked it for at least five minutes, until it turned from white-ish to more yellowy brown. that adds a lot of flavor.
  
  
• if you like mustard, use a lot of it. i suggest adding mustard powder at the beginning, when you add the flour (but not instead of flour). then, when adding whatever cheez product you prefer, add grain mustard or yellow mustard until it tastes the way you like.
  
  
• make sure the soy milk is unsweetened. there is nothing like accidentally using "light vanilla" soy milk to ruin a good mac and cheese. (although the "light vanilla" soy milk makes a really good corn chowder. i don't personally like it, but i've made it several times for my mom, who loves the added sweetness.)
  
  
• the soy milk should be heated to at least lukewarm before use, to encourage the sauce to hold together properly (and not clump).
  
  
• the cheese should be shredded, rather than cut into cubes or slices, for maximum melting, and added a small handful at a time (especially if it is cold).

and, of course, for those who don't eat dairy but do eat meat, meat grease can be used in place of oil for added flavor. most people i know who are not vegetarians make their roux with bacon grease, and add chopped up crispy bacon to the final product. in addition to being (i'm told) delicious, it also helps cover the sometimes slightly sketchy flavor and scent of cheez product.

[sid]

Oh, gosh, no, you obviously know way more than I do on the subject! I often use soy milk instead of regular milk on a one-to-one substitution basis, and slices of soy cheese on my burgers sometimes, and shredded "mozzarella" or "cheddar" as appropriate (when I can find them) in recipes, but I've never tried making a substitute for a traditional sauce.

For me, as a non-vegan, I wouldn't think of substituting anything for the butter. I don't think dairy butter has ever caused me any problems, maybe because the amounts are usually relatively small. But I'm sure soy butter would work for me taste/texture-wise if I needed to switch, based on my experience with other soy products.

(I have a vegan friend, and I sometimes wonder if she will really stick with it for the rest of her life. Could I ask what caused you to change from that lifestyle?)

warning: could be triggery for eating disorder issues

[octette]

i know a lot of vegans who have been vegan for ten, twenty, thirty years. it requires a lot of commitment and dedication at first, but once you've done it for a few years, it becomes second nature the same way being vegetarian or eating meat seems.

for me personally, i had a really difficult time making the transition from being vegetarian to being vegan (compounded by the fact that i had a difficult time with becoming a vegetarian, compounded by extreme untreated anorexia & other eating disorders), but i ended up working part-time for several years at a vegan restaurant, where i ate most of my meals, and had vegan roommates who cooked a lot and made sure i always had something to eat.

once my vegan roommates moved out and i stopped working at the restaurant, i ate extremely poorly. my own fault for being an idiot (in case you're wondering, steamed spinach & pasta w/marinara sauce for supper every single night, and green salad & soy yogurt for lunch every day is not a healthy diet; who knew?) but i ended up getting sick quite a lot in a four month period, and also feeling resentful of the (self-imposed!!) restrictions on what i could eat, and backsliding into the extreme disordered eating behavior. (plus, at this point in my life, i was switching up my psych meds a lot, which wreaked havoc with my taste buds and sense of fullness after eating, etc.)

eventually, i ended up going back to being ovo-lacto vegetarian because it was easier and made me feel better. (i broke my veg in the middle of the jet blue terminal in the jfk airport at, like, six in the morning one day; i was leaving for a business trip, staring longingly at the dunkin' donuts kiosk when i suddenly realized that i could have a fucking doughnut if i wanted one. that first bite of the powdered sugar-covered chocolate frosting-filled doughnut to this day remains one of my all time favorite memories.)

the ethics of veganism were -- still are! -- important to me, but i had to put my health (mental, mostly, but physical too!) before all of that. so probably i am not the best person to give you information on long term veganism.

buuuuut, for whatever it is worth, like i said, i have a lot of friends who have made a long term commitment to veganism who are really happy and healthy and cook a lot of really delicious food. one of my friends specializes in making candy analogs -- back in, like, 2004, she made a vegan twix bar. it was incredible!




.....separately, you might be extremely disappointed with vegan mornay sauce, because vegan cheese in large amounts is pretty gross. i never got used to it or ate it in any quantity. but the restaurant where i worked made several different types of cheez sauces -- none of which were a traditional mornay. for one we used rice cheese; for the other we used nutritional yeast (which is pretty good, esp on popcorn).

i suggest that instead of diving right into vegan mornay, try this recipe for a nutritional yeast-based sauce from the post punk kitchen.

Re: warning: could be triggery for eating disorder issues

[sid]

Ah, my friend takes meds for depression/anxiety, so maybe those are actually helping her at this point to stick to her chosen diet. She was vegetarian for about a week and felt that it wasn't quite right for her, so she went vegan.

*handwaves* As a die-hard carnivore, I wished she'd been satisfied with vegetarianism. Just easier for her friends and family to cope with, you know?

Now she's a raw vegan, but makes exceptions when she's eating out. Not a whole lot of choice, really!

Re: warning: could be triggery for eating disorder issues

[octette]

funny -- as a die-hard vegetarian, i wish my friends and family would be vegetarian too. much easier for me to cope with!

Re: warning: could be triggery for eating disorder issues

[sid]

LOL, it's all POV, isn't it? :-)