Farm Box, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways

This week's bounty!

I love Fridays when my farm box arrives. For someone who likes to cook, it's like a Christmas present appearing on the doorstop every other week.  The program I have lets me customize my box, and somehow, this week, I think I must have had a major Alzheimer's moment, because I added a lot of stuff to my box, but forgot to remove the things I didn't want.  The end result:  three different types of brocolli, three different types of mushrooms, too many types of greens to count, and all of this coming at the start of a three day weekend which I would be spending in Tucson, celebrating my Dad's 87th birthday. 

With such an abundance of cruciferous brassicas, I decided I had better make something with them right away.  Meaty, hearty roasted romanesco was my choice for today's lunch.  Romanesco is sometimes called cauliflower and sometimes brocolli, and I think the naming confusion occurs because it's actually a cross between the two vegetables.  It is supposedly a good source of numerous vitamins and minerals, including vitamins A, C, and K as well as folate, fiber, iron, manganese, carotene, protein, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids.

My recipe had to be fast, because not only did I need to prepare it this morning before leaving for work, but I also needed to wash, prep and store all the rest of the vegetables.  I decided to simply roast it with salt, rosemary, olive oil, garlic and a kiss of cayenne.  This is a classic and easy preparation which requires just a little chopping followed by tossing the ingredients together then spreading on a baking sheet and roasting for about 25 minutes.

Since this was going to be my lunch, I decided to add some grated parmesan cheese and nuts to boost the protein content.  However, I ran out of time to toast the nuts, and I happened to have a bag of Good Bean "crispy crunchy" chickpeas, so I used those instead.  I think that toasted sliced almonds or pinenuts would also have been really delicious.  In hindsight, it would have been best to add the chickpeas just before eating, because they lost a little of their crunch after sitting in my lunchbox for a couple of hours.

Garlic and Olive Oil Roasted Romanesco

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place rack in middle of oven

I head of Romanesco, broken into even size florets and sliced about 1/2 inch thick
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp minced fresh rosemary
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
optional:  1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Place all the ingredients in a ziplock bag, toss well to distribute the seasoning, then spread evenly on a parchment-lined baking tray (to make clean up easier).  Roast for 20-25 minutes until the vegetables develop a nice dark carmelization in spots.


If adding nuts and cheese, use 2 Tbsp each of your favorite toasted nuts and grated cheese such as parmesan or another hard flavorful cheese. Add after the vegetables come out of the oven.