If ever there was a broccoli recipe to turn broccoli haters around, this is it. This is our favorite way to eat broccoli now – absolutely delicious! A friend of ours was over one day, and we started discussing recipes. She’d asked if I had ever cooked broccoli in the oven. The oven? Um, no. She assured me that it was sooooo good because of the slight crunchiness the broccoli got from being baked. I thought it was odd sounding, but I am willing to try a lot of things at least once.
And I am so glad I did! We have yet to get tired of this recipe, and I fix it often! The ingredient list is super easy, though I forgot to include the pepper for the picture below. I prefer using fine sea salt but was out when I made this particular batch.
I don’t remember what website I originally got the recipe from, but I have since tweaked it to our liking. I use broccoli crowns and cut them close to the florets. Two pounds of broccoli crowns usually gives me about 1 – 1¼ lbs of broccoli florets. I hate that frozen broccoli gives you so much stem. And let me say, I have made this recipe with frozen broccoli before, and it is nowhere near the same. Use fresh!
Once the broccoli comes out of the oven (see complete recipe below), you’ll mix in the zest of one lemon. I love my microplane grater! It takes 30 seconds to grate all of the zest from a lemon!
You’ll also squeeze the juice from one half of the lemon and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. I use fresh Parmesan, but you can definitely use pre-grated.
This broccoli is AMAZING! Seriously, you have to try it! My recipes says it makes 4 servings, but Alex and I usually eat all of it ourselves! It’s that good, and he used to hate broccoli.
Oven-roasting the broccoli until it gets that nice dark color is what makes this recipe so good. Make sure you bake it long enough. This batch took right at 25 minutes.
- 1 lbs fresh broccoli florets (from about 2 lbs of broccoli crowns)
- 2 tsp garlic from a jar
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 2.5 - 3oz (5-6 tbsp) olive oil
- zest of 1 lemon
- juice of ½ a lemon
- ⅓ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Preheat oven to 425°.
- Line a large sheet pan with aluminum foil and spray lightly with nonstick spray.
- Mix the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl, making sure all ingredients are mixed evenly. You want just enough olive oil to lightly coat all of the broccoli. Too much will make it soggy in the oven.
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the broccoli starts getting dark in color (outer edges getting crispy).
- Once the broccoli is done in the oven, sprinkle with the zest from 1 lemon, the juice from HALF the lemon, and the Parmesan cheese. Mix evenly.