Roasted Broccoli with Sunflower Butter

I love roasting vegetables, especially crucifers like cauliflower and broccoli. If you know someone who is averse to these gamey vegetables, try roasting. When you roast them, or any vegetable, it removes some of the liquid, develops the natural sugars, and of course gets toasty brown bits which is always good when food is involved.

Cut the florets into approximately equal sizes. Slice stems appropriately.

Rub the sunflower butter into the crevices and crannies of the florets. Don’t be gentle. Really get them coated, then sprinkle with the crushed red pepper.

When they’re done, the broccoli is cooked but not soft. The sunflower butter is browned. There might be some burny-bits on your baking sheet. Scrape those off and sprinkle them on top. They’re crunchy and good and will make up for the fact that you’re gonna have to scrub-a-dub that baking sheet. Sorry! (Or I guess you can bake the broccoli on some parchment paper if you’re a lil smarter than me!)

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Roasted Broccoli with Sunflower Butter

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5 from 2 reviews

Author: Hilah Johnson
Prep Time: 2 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 17 minutes
Yield: 4 1x

Ingredients

Scale

1 pound broccoli
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic
1/4–1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

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Instructions

Set oven to 450ºF
Cut broccoli into florets and cut stem into pieces.
Combine seeds, water, lemon juice, and salt in a food processor and make a paste.
Peel and slice garlic.
Toss broccoli with sunflower paste, rubbing it in to the crevices of the florets. Mix in the garlic slices and spread out onto a baking sheet.
Sprinkle with red pepper.
Bake 15 minutes.

5 Comments

averagebetty on May 20, 2013 at 1:26 pm

Yum! Looks delicious, Hilah! And just saying sunflower butter makes me feel all summery and flowery-childish. Or maybe just childish?

Either way, I bet this would be fabulous on the grill too — love broccoli on the grill!

Reply
- Hilah on May 20, 2013 at 5:36 pm
  
  Thanks Sara!
  Sunflower butter does have a flowery-childy ring to it. 🙂
  
  Reply
Great Stone Face on May 20, 2013 at 3:52 pm

This sounds great. Roasted vegetables are great. Mostly, I roast asparagus, but I’ve roasted cauliflower, too — Bittman’s recipe with raisins and vinaigrette; and my recipe with ras el hanout.

Reply
- Hilah on May 20, 2013 at 5:37 pm
  
  I love the ras el hanout idea. I’ve been meaning to make a jar of the mix. Now seems like a good time. 🙂
  
  Reply
Hilah on May 26, 2013 at 10:26 am

Hey Judith! You’re right that it’s not the prettiest dish. I hope at least you liked how it tasted.

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