Broccoli Cauliflower Combo

The quiet. Four people in a house that held seven. Me, Derek, Zoe, and Curtis. The noise is gone — replaced by a different sound, softer, more intimate. Zoe practices art in the living room. Derek reads in the bedroom. Curtis eats downstairs. I cook. The cooking has changed again — scaled down, quieter, the portions smaller, the meals for four instead of seven. But the cooking continues. The stove is on. The Folgers can is on the counter. The kitchen smells like garlic. The fundamentals don't change. The fundamentals never change. The fundamentals ARE the change.

Jasmine called from Howard her first week. She said, "The dining hall food is..." She paused. She said, "It's food." The damning-with-faint-praise of a girl who has eaten her mother's cooking for eighteen years. I said, "Cook in the dorm kitchen." She said, "I already made cornbread." Of course she did. The first thing she made at Howard was cornbread. No sugar. Cast iron. The recipe that is hers. The recipe that connects DC to Cascade Heights to Brenda Jackson's kitchen to rural Alabama. The cornbread crossed state lines. The cornbread doesn't need a passport. The cornbread IS the passport.

Made dinner for four: salmon, rice, roasted broccoli. Simple. Clean. The meal of a smaller household. The meal of two adults, one teenager, and one grandfather. The table holds four the way it held seven the way it held three: completely. The numbers change. The holding doesn't.

That night I made salmon for four, and this was the side that sat next to it — the broccoli, plain and honest, exactly what the meal needed. Nothing about it is elaborate. Nothing about it tries to be. The table was quieter than it used to be, but the food didn’t know that; it just showed up the way it always does, warm and ready, filling whatever space it was given. This is the recipe.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 cups fresh broccoli florets
2 cups fresh cauliflower florets
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 425°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
Prep vegetables. Cut broccoli and cauliflower into evenly sized florets, about 1 to 1 1/2 inches each, so they roast at the same rate.
Season. In a large bowl, toss the florets with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes if using. Spread in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet — don’t crowd them.
Roast. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, turning once halfway through, until the edges are golden and slightly crisp.
Finish. Remove from oven and immediately drizzle with lemon juice and sprinkle with Parmesan. Serve warm alongside salmon, rice, or whatever the night calls for.

Nutrition (per serving)

Broccoli Cauliflower Combo — The Table Holds However Many Come