A Growing Love for Vegetables

Recipe
Broccoli with Red Pepper Flakes and Toasted Garlic

I've been collecting and experimenting with lots of vegetable side dish recipes lately, in a concerted effort to learn to enjoy cooked vegetables...not just eat them because I should. I'll eat just about any vegetable raw, or cooked into a main dish like a quiche or a casserole, but I have some issues with cooking them as a side dish. I've come to realize that what I really have is just an aversion to those frozen bags of vegetables that have been boiled or steamed...I need flavor! I need crunch! Fortunately, there are countless ways to prepare vegetable side dishes that don't involve just boiling them in a pot of water and plopping them on a plate. This broccoli recipe is one DR and I both really love - the broccoli is only sautéed for a few minutes, so it stays nice and crisp (an important feature to picky vegetable eaters, such as myself), it's infused with a lovely toasted garlic flavor, and the red pepper flakes add enough of a spicy kick to keep it interesting. The last selling point for this recipe is what I just realized as I was typing it up for the blog this morning: it's written by my friend Lia Huber over at Swirling Notions! She occasionally writes for Cooking Light and other magazines in addition to her work at Swirling Notions, and she's fabulous. Thanks for the recipe, Lia!