PERFECT Roasted Broccolini

Recipe: Roasted Sesame Broccolini Recipe »

It's broccolini season and this roasted broccolini recipe is a wonderful way to serve broccolini as a vegetable side dish. Roasting broccolini makes the tips crispy and the stems tender but adding honey and sesame seasons this to perfection! This is the only way I make broccolini in this house because I get so many requests for this sesame roasted broccolini!

What is broccolini? Broccolini is a hybrid vegetable, a cross between Chinese broccoli or gai larn and regular broccoli. It is a naturally developed hybrid created through traditional hand-pollinated crosses, not genetic modification where genes are spliced. Broccolini has long stalks and small florets. This is how I've been cooking broccolini for years and I never really thought to put the recipe up because it is so basic I didn't think that people needed this recipe. But my friends and Mr NQN convinced me otherwise when I cooked this for them one night as a side dish. You can also easily make this vegan.

Tips For Making Roasted Broccolini

1 - Wash the broccolini but then shake or pat it dry. That way, the tips can get nice and crispy rather than steam cook in the oven.

2 - To emulsify the honey and oil start with the honey in a bowl and then slowly whisk in the oil pouring it in a thin drizzle. Otherwise adding both together too quickly will mean that the honey and oil will not emulsify properly.

3 - If you want to keep this vegan you can sub the honey with maple syrup, agave or rice malt syrup.

4 - I use a mixture of black and white sesame seeds but use all white if that is all you have.

5 - This takes a total of 10 minutes in the oven and that's it! But once it is cooked, take it out of the oven. If you leave it in a hot oven, the broccolini will overcook and become too soft and lose its crispness.

6 - You can also try this with broccoli florets. It is better with broccolini because of the longer stems but it is still delicious with broccoli too.

• Other Side Dishes You Might Like:
• Roasted Sweet Potato With Caramelised Pecans
• Rocket Arugula Pear Salad
• Parsnip Puree
• Mexican Street Corn
• Glazed Dutch Carrots

Roasted Sesame Broccolini

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Serves: 4 as a side

• 2 bunches broccolini (around 450g/1lb)
• 30g honey
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 45ml extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon white sesame seeds

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 220C/428F or 200C/392F fan forced and line a large baking tray or 2 medium ones with parchment. Wash the broccolini and shake or pat it dry. Arrange it in alternate top and tail on the baking tray/s.

Step 2 - Add the honey and salt into a bowl and slowly whisk in the olive oil and drizzle over the broccolini. Sprinkle the sesame seeds and then bake for 10 minutes. Place on a serving plate. I also like to scrape up the extra sesame seeds on the baking tray and add them on top of the broccolini.

Broccolini is super cheap at the moment so every week we buy 6 bunches. I am not kidding about how moreish this roasted broccolini is. The other night I was craving it so much that I was very tempted to have it as a late night snack. And Dear Reader I never snack after I brush my teeth, shower and go to bed to watch tv. I couldn't stop thinking about this broccolini even while Cordelia Cupp was solving a murder on tv and my mind kept drifting to the container of sesame broccolini I had in the fridge downstairs. I weighed up the pros and cons - the cons were obviously I'd have to brush my teeth again but I'd also have to floss because of these sesame seeds.

It got to the point of distraction where I was no longer paying attention to the tv. And at 11:19pm I went downstairs, turned on the dimmest light and snacked on 6 stems of the sesame broccolini crunching away like a hungry raccoon. And I'm afraid that now I have a new late night craving that I find hard to resist!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you had any really odd late night cravings? Do you snack at night?