Romanesco Broccoli

How does traveling change you?  I was thinking about this today as we were shopping for groceries.  Normally I hate grocery shopping and cooking.  But lately I have noticed that I am actually enjoying it.  How weird.  First of all, I love finding new and unusual foods to try, which happens regularly in new countries.  Second, I am not stressed and just trying to quickly get in and out with the same boring-stuck-in-a-rut-foods.

So when I saw this beautiful-piece-of-art vegetable today, I just couldn’t resist.  Just look at it.  It is amazing and awesome!  And how often do vegetables beg to be photographed?  Dave, I, and Summer all got our cameras out and started snapping.  It is not easy to do close up shots as the camera doesn’t know where to focus.  But the extra time was totally worth it.  Seriously, you could blow up this image and hang it on the wall.

 

Romanesco is in the broccoli cauliflower family.  So we first sampled it raw with a spicy dipping sauce.  I made the sauce with just what I had on hand.

Spicy dipping sauce

• 1/2 cup quality (no sugar added) mayonnaise.  I prefer regular mayo, the low fat stuff has added sugar.  Also, mayo made with olive or grape seed oil is really good.
• 1 -2 t. dijon mustard (to taste)
• cayenne pepper to taste.  (the cayenne pepper here seems much weaker than we are used to so I used more than 1/2 t. but in the US, it would take much less)

Stir and enjoy with  veggies!

 

Luie loved it so much, he said, “This is so good, I just can’t stop eating it even though it is burning my mouth!”

 

 

I also wanted to try it roasted in the oven since I love roasted cauliflower.  So I made a quick olive oil marinade with only the few spices I had on hand.

Roasted Romanesco

• Romanesco florets
• 2 T. olive oil
• dash of salt and pepper
• dash of herbs provenzales (rosemary, oregano, thyme, etc)
• dash cayenne pepper
• 1 finely minced garlic clove

Coat the Romanesco florets with the oil and seasoning mix.  I find it easiest to shake in a bag.  Place on cookie sheet and put in oven.  I baked it for about 30 min. stirring once at 15 minutes.  I set my English oven to 3. I believe this is roughly equivalent to 325 degrees.  Watch for a nice golden brown.

This was delicious!  The whole family unanimously loved it!  We had some left over spicy dipping sauce and it was also good with the roasted Romanesco.  It is similar tasting to a combination of broccoli and cauliflower.  It is also a good source in vitamin C, vitamin K, fiber, and carotenoids.  Win, win, win, it was beautiful, delicious, and nutritious!

One more interesting fact I learned while researching online.  The Romanesco broccoli is a natural example of a fractal.  A fractal is a geometric pattern that is  replicated at smaller scales to make irregular shapes and surfaces.  That is a very simplified definition of this mathematical term.

The sad thing is, that Romanesco may have been in my local grocery and I never saw it, because I was so stuck in a rut.  But no more.  Now I am on the look out for awesome new foods.  Especially delicious pieces of art!