Romanesco!
What a lovely and intriguing vegetable!
I was gifted a big beautiful piece of veg and had to ask on Twitter exactly what it was and how to prepare it. The lovely ladies @getsconed and @veganyogini both offered up the name and how to eat it—either raw or roasted, like cauliflower.
I like it raw as much as the next girl (ha), but I’ve been growingly obsessed with roasting vegetables lately and had to try it. I cut it up into itty bitty pieces, saving the adorable little mini-christmas-trees as whole pieces.
As an aside, this reminds of me of this news story from a few years ago, when a doctor found a fir tree growing in a Russian man’s lungs.
True Story. I think.
Maybe he just swallowed a baby piece of romanesco.
Adorableness aside, it’s also highly intriguing because of it’s logarithmic spiral. A logarithmic spiral is a cool spiral pattern found often in nature.
(source)
And each little larger Christmas Tree bud has a cluster of identical smaller Christmas Tree buds. It’s infinitely fascinating.
So, I cut up these little tree-shaped pieces, sprinkled some olive oil, salt and pepper on them, then stuck them in the oven on 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Mine were so small they didn’t take very long.
I intended to use them in a yet-to-be-determined recipe, but once I sampled one I had to keep eating. Had to. All of them.
Delicious!
