I feel like it’s been AGES since we’ve talked! I had the food blogging conference, spring break last week and then you know, I’m just getting down to business with my homemade baby food post that came out earlier in the week. Granted, if you follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my newsletter, you’re getting some of the behind the scenes. But let’s do a quick recap: Food blogging conference in Charleston was all kinds of fabulous! Inspiring, uplifting and OH SO NICE to bond with some fellow foodies over all the nerdy ins and outs of this business. Oh, and made all kinds of amazing friends and had lots of good eats + drinks!
Spring break was wonderful but also a little sad. It was unbelievably lovely to have a week off with the kiddos and to visit with my in-laws. But my husband’s grandfather — and my son’s namesake — fell ill and went into the hospital. Everyone took off to go visit him for a night while I stayed back with the kids. He’s still in the ICU and we’re hoping for the best, but it hasn’t been looking great. We’ll just hang in there and see what happens. Thoughts/good vibes/prayers appreciated. Still, we managed to have lots of fun! Kiddos make a good distraction.
But on to the food… Y’all may or may not know that I really hate food waste. And that means I’m super good at repurposing leftovers and knowing how to freeze all kinds of foods. My homemade baby food pouches are perfect for this sort of thing and so are my turmeric chicken bowls that rely on some staples and can use up veggie scraps. (Kinda like how you can customize my one-pot vegetarian spaghetti.) Today I wanted to challenge myself to come up with a recipe using food scraps that normally get thrown away. The first recipe I tested in this category was a huge success. It was cake, after all. But it was also one that I lied about - I didn’t tell anyone at the party what was really in it. So that kinda seemed like a bad recipe to blog about. “Make this delicious cake - and then don’t tell anyone what’s in it!” (If you really want to know, comment below and I’ll let you in on what it was.) And the whole time I was testing that recipe, I had these roasted broccoli stalks in my head.
The first time I used broccoli stalks all by themselves was years ago and I pickled them, using a recipe from The New York Times. And they were strange but awesome. It was another one where I made people eat it - so they liked it - before I would tell them what it was. Apparently, you should be nervous about coming over and eating my food. But this recipe today, these are just fun little roasted broccoli coins that get seasoned, baked and then dusted with a bit of Parmesan cheese. No lying, no sneakiness, no awkwardness needed. Cause they’re just GOOD!
On the other hand, I lamented the fact that they are a little less than star quality in the photo department. That bizarre cake would have been WAY easier to make look good! Ah well, I wanted to bring them to you anyway!
Tips on making roasted broccoli stalks:
You’ll need to rinse your stalks, trim off the bottom ends and pull off any leaves. You also may need to cut off or shave off any bad spots or wild outshoots so these will cut more evenly. I slice my little discs about ¼-inch thick and they roast up beautifully. Don’t throw away any of the upper stalks though! Just toss them with the seasonings and throw them on the sheet pan too. You can take them out earlier if you need to. Feel free to substitute nutritional yeast or just skip the cheese if you want to make these vegan.
So stop throwing away those broccoli stems! You can put them to good use and make these cute and tasty little coins. What are your best uses of food scraps? Best ideas for reducing food waste? I’d love to hear them in the comments below! XO, Kathryn
I slice my little discs about ¼-inch thick and they roast up beautifully. Don’t throw away any of the upper stalks though! Just toss them with the seasonings and throw them on the sheet pan too. You can take them out earlier if you need to.
