For any of you out there who find it difficult to stomach eating vegetables, my husband offers this solution: cover them in cheese. I don’t always agree with this philosophy; I’m actually one of those freaky people that think roasted vegetables are heaven all by themselves, but I have to admit I’ve never turned down anything that was drowning in cheese.

That’s the idea with this potato. First, you make a super rich cheddar cheese sauce.  You can actually just stop here and pour the whole thing in a bowl if you want. Just tell people it’s “cheese soup”. Yeah, that stuff totally exists, probably because some chef wanted an excuse to eat cheese sauce with a spoon.

Okay, now stir in the broccoli. This ingredient is key because you can now convince yourself that this is super nutritious and therefore you should force yourself to eat every bite. Eating seconds is highly advisable.

Now, pour that stuff all over your baked potato. Yeah, covering vegetables in cheese is pretty dang awesome.

Broccoli and Cheese Baked Potato

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2 russet potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 tablespoon flour
¾ cup half and half
¾ cup vegetable stock
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper
1 ½ cups broccoli florets

Poke the potatoes with a fork a couple times, and wrap in aluminum foil. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. Squeeze them with an oven mitt to see if they’re tender. If not, bake for another 15 minutes, or until they become tender.

Bring a large pot of water up to a boil. Add in the broccoli florets and blanch for about 4 minutes, or until tender. Quickly transfer to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Allow to sit for 2 minutes and then drain.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Saute the onions until they just begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Add in the flour and stir for 1 minute more.

Whisk in the cream and vegetable stock. Continue whisking until the mixture becomes thick, about 5-8 minutes. Whisk in 3/4 cup of the cheddar cheese and stir until it’s completely melted. Season with salt and pepper. (now is the time that you could call this cheese soup) Stir in the broccoli florets.

Take your potatoes out of the foil and make a large cut through the center of the potato. Press the ends of the potato to open up the gap, and pour broccoli cheese sauce into it. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Enjoy your cheese-coated vegetables.

I am a big fan of broccoli. I really don’t feel that there’s any need to dress it up; to me plain steamed or sautéed broccoli is just delicious. However, when Adam from Amateur Gourmet advertises that he has The Best Broccoli of Your Life, it’s definitely going to pique my interest. I decided one day to make it and then while I was at work I asked Chase what he wanted to have to go with his broccoli. Here is our text message conversation in verbatim

Me: I’m making broccoli for dinner. What else do you want?
Chase: Just broccoli?
Me: I have a recipe for the blog
Chase: Ok. I’m saying it’s just broccoli? That’s it? That’s a boring blog entry. Here’s some broccoli. Mmmmmm. Just steam it or grill it up and there ya go.
(yes, that is a sarcasm you’re detecting in his messaging)
Me: So you think. This broccoli is gonna be amazing.

As you can see, this broccoli came with high expectations. I had to prove that broccoli could in fact be amazing. And yeah, I think I did just that. This broccoli was everything I wanted it to be. I loved the burned crispiness from roasting in the oven, the tang of the lemon juice drizzled over it and the salty buttery-ness of parmesan cheese sprinkled over top. In the end, I never did come up with anything to make alongside it and so I just had a plate of broccoli for dinner. And who was it that stole my plate and ate all the leftovers? Yeah, Mr. Broccoli-is-so-boring himself.

Seriously, give this one a try. Your veggies never tasted so good.

Definitely Not Boring Broccoli

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa via the Amateur Gourmet

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Adam makes a note that it is super important that your broccoli be dry when you put it in the oven. Therefore, I did something I’ve never done before – I ate vegetables that weren’t washed! I bought organic broccoli at the farmer’s market, so I hope I’m fine, but just make sure if you wash your broccoli that you dry it very well. Also, Chase thought there was a hint too much lemon in the batch I made, so I’ve noted that you should only use the juice from half a lemon to start, and you can always add more later.

2 medium bunches of broccoli, cut into florets
4 tablespoons olive oil
salt & pepper
2 cloves garlic, cut in half
1 lemon
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
¼ cup toasted pine nuts

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil over broccoli and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread out over a baking sheet with the garlic cloves. Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the broccoli starts to blacken around the edges and gets crispy.

Meanwhile, zest the lemon and cut in half. Squeeze the juice out of half of the lemon and combine with lemon zest and olive oil to form a “dressing.” Remove the broccoli from the oven and pour the lemon dressing over it. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and pine nuts. At this point you should taste it to decide if you want to squeeze the rest of the lemon over it, and then dig into the best broccoli you’ve ever had.