Recipe for Roasted Broccoli with Lemon and Pecorino-Romano Cheese

Here's another addition to the growing list of Low-Glycemic Holiday Recipes I've been trying for Thanksgiving. Earlier I shared a wonderful recipe for Broccoli Gratin with Swiss and Parmesan, and this roasted broccoli with lemon and pecorino-romano is lighter, but just as delicious. What makes this broccoli so good is the way it's tossed with lemon juice after cooking so the hot roasted broccoli soaks up the lemon flavor, then gets kicked-up with the slightly assertive flavor of Pecorino-Romano Cheese. Best of all, this cooks in 20 minutes, so you could throw it in the oven while you're carving the turkey and making gravy.

Broccoli is cut so the flowerets are less than an inch across, then it's tossed in olive oil and put in a 450F oven to roast.

When I try a recipe with an ingredient like this Pecorino-Romano cheese, I'm thankful for my FoodSaver, which allows me to vacuum-seal things I don't use frequently and keep them from going bad. I buy this cheese at Costco, but you could definitely make this recipe with parmesan too.

I have a finer microplane grater, but this time I wanted the grated shreds of cheese to show in the finished dish.

You can actually toss the hot roasted broccoli with the lemon juice and grated cheese right in the baking dish. I used this 9" x 13" ceramic roaster and cooked it in my toaster oven for this test batch.

Roasted Broccoli with Lemon and Pecorino-Romano Cheese
(Makes 4 servings, recipe adapted slightly from Fine Cooking Annual 2008, one of my favorite cookbooks of all time!)

1 lb. broccoli flowerets, cut so flower ends are not over an inch across (about 6 cups cut broccoli flowerets)
2 T extra virgin olive oil
sea salt to taste (I used a sea salt grinder)
1 T fresh squeezed lemon juice (I used about a tsp. more)
1/3 cup freshly grated Pecorino-Romano or Parmesan cheese (not packed)

Preheat oven to 450 F. Trim broccoli stalks so pieces are close to the same length. You may want to peel the broccoli with a vegetable peeler if the skin seems tough, but I didn't. Cut apart broccoli flowerets so pieces are the same size and each flower end is less than an inch across. (To avoid the mess from trimming broccoli, cut through the stem part, then pull flowerets apart. I don't remember where I learned this trick, but it really works!)

Toss broccoli with 2 T olive oil, and sprinkle with salt to taste. (I used a 9" x 13" crockery roasting dish, but I might have used a larger pan if I hadn't been using the toaster oven. If using a metal roasting pan, I would spray the pan with non-stick spray or olive oil.) Spread out broccoli pieces in roasting pan. Roast broccoli until pieces are bright green and starting to get browned edges. (I turned after 10 minutes, and then again after 5 minutes, and cooked for 20 minutes total roasting time.)

Toss broccoli with fresh lemon juice and then sprinkle with Pecorino-Romano or Parmesan cheese. Serve hot.

South Beach Suggestions:

This would be a perfect side dish for any phase of the South Beach Diet or any other low-glycemic eating plan.

More Roasted Vegetable Options for Thanksgiving
Roasted Butternut Squash with Lemon, Thyme, and Parmesan
Roasted Butternut Squash with Moroccan Spices
Garlic Roasted Green Beans with Shallots and Almonds
Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Red Onions with Rosemary and Parmesan
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic, Parmesan, and Pine Nuts
(Find more roasted vegetable recipes with Food Blog Search.)

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