Oven Roasted Broccoli – That Rocks!

Steamed broccoli with nothing on it is a boring food many bodybuilders eat.  There is no question it is healthy and nutritious as its full of minerals and vitamins, including A, C, E, and K, has plenty of fiber, is very low calorie (160 calories per pound), and has a low glycemic index of 10. It is also extremely filling, great for endomorphs and anyone dieting.

The problem with broccoli is that it can be pretty boring by itself, and so many people do not know how to cook it at all, never mind in a interesting fashion. Some recipes, like this one, and Dave Ruel’s Beef and Broccoli stir fry, will make you wonder why you never loved broccoli before!

This is amazingly easy to cook

This simple roast broccoli recipe with olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper is not only delicious, but it is amazingly simply to cook. My uncle who has hated broccoli his entire 80+ years actually loves it.

It is great as a side dish, as a snack, and also as a light meal. It’s not only good when fresh and warm, but is also pretty nice to snack on cold or room temperature – I often do.

A pound of this roast broccoli, even with the olive oil, is a very filling 400 calories or so! For a pound of filling food that is nothing! Especially nutritious food!

Ingredients:

One pound broccoli – I often buy mine precut into florets at the supermarket or in 2 lb bags from Sam’s Club. It’s not hard to cut yourself either.

• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil – Extra Virgin Olive Oil is best
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic – You can buy it chopped and in a jar from markets, or chop it yourself (a garlic press makes it pretty easy). Feel free to add more or less as you prefer.
• ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt – Kosher salt is simple a pure salt with large crystals. You can use regular salt if that is all you have and it works just fine.
• ¼ teaspoon pepper – Fresh ground preferable, but any pepper works well

Turn the oven onto 420 degrees so it can preheat.

Rinse the broccoli florets and set them aside to dry.

Meanwhile, mix the other ingredients into the olive oil a small bowl. You’ll want to coat the broccoli with this olive oil mixture.

You can toss them together in a bowl, but the easiest way to do this I’ve found is to put them in a large ziplock bag and shake them back and forth for a few minutes. They’ll never be 100% perfectly coated evenly and it doesn’t matter so don’t stress.

Now you want to put them in a baking pan. You can cover the baking pan in aluminum foil to make cleanup easier if you’d like. The type of baking pan doesn’t matter; use what you have. A cake pan, cookie sheet, sheet pan or anything similar works equally well. I even

used a muffin tin once when I had nothing else to use!

Once the oven is heated to temperature (they usually beep, and the “preheating” indicator or light will go off), put the pan in the oven.

You want to cook it for about 20 minutes, until the broccoli just starts to brown around the edges. I usually check it at 15 minutes as ovens can vary. If you want, just pull it out after 20 minutes and it’ll be great.

Enjoy!

Broccoli is a very nutritious food, which is who so many meal plans include it. Cooking it so it isn’t boring very easy with this recipe!

For variety, you can also some some hot pepper flakes to the olive oil mixture, or sprinkling and tossing with Parmesan cheese or breadcrumbs when it’s done.