Soy Marinated Grilled Broccoli with Browned Peanuts

I have this AWESOME friend named Ceaven (it’s pronounced “Kevin”). My phone likes to correct her name seven million times before it accepts that I am trying to type Ceaven. Craven. Caravan. Heaven. The corrections are endless. Anyway, she is also a teacher at the school where I work, so we eat lunch together everyday. We both loooovvveee food and cooking, so we are always trying each other’s meals.

Well, one day she brought broccoli with these almost charred peanuts. And, oh my gaassshhhhhh it was so good. Why would almost burnt peanuts taste so good? I don’t know. It sounds super weird. But it’s not. It is delicious. The peanuts get SUPER toasty and nutty, and they go so wonderfully well with the broccoli.

So – dearest Ceaven,

Thank you for brightening my life with your delicious broccoli and browned peanuts recipe. And for making me laugh until I cry sitting on the floor of Walmart shopping for scrubs. And making me laugh until I cry a billion other times.

There seems to be three types of broccoli eaters:

1. Fave part is the stems – the bushy parts = ehh.
2. Fave part is the bushy end – the stems = dece.
3. Fave part is brooocccoolliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii – the whole thing. Because broccoli = lyfe.

I used to be number one, and now I am HARDCORE number three. My husband is number two – he could just much off the tops of those broccoli all day long. There is an unspoken number four that I refused to list above: people who won’t eat broccoli because they think it’s nast-ay. If you are one of those people…how is life for you? Is it sad? Is it empty and broccoli-less? Shhh…it’s okay. Things will get better. Just try this broccoli recipe and you will be converted into a broccoli lover and then we can be friends.

Let’s just talk about this broccoli in a little more detail here. What does “soy marinated” mean anyway? Well, my dear internet friends, it means that before we grill this broccoli to perfection, we marinate it for about thirty minutes in a mixture of soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, olive oil, garlic, ginger, honey, and red pepper flakes.

Oh, but we don’t stop there. When your broccoli is almost done doing delicious things in your grill pan, discard the garlic and ginger pieces from your marinade, and add that goodness into the pan with the broccoli. It reduces a bit and coats the broccoli with even more ridiculously awesome flava-flave.

And then there are the peanuts – easiest things ever. Take peanuts, place in pan over medium – medium high heat, and brown. BUT – here’s the only slightly potentially possibly mayyyybe challenging part: the level you take the peanuts is important. You want to remove them just before they are burnt. You want them more than toasted, less than black. Like a deep brown color. That’s when they reach max nutty, toasty, deliciousness.

You want to hear something super random that cracked me up? So I don’t know if you’ve heard of those “Couch to 5k” apps, but basically it just has different workouts every day that build you up to running three miles straight. I have one on my phone from forever ago and decided to start using it recently.

Since I’m not starting from “couch,” I skipped forward to week five. It’s been inching slowly up the last few days to higher intensity. For example, one day might be…run 1/2 mile, walk for 3 mins, run 3/4 mile, walk for 2 mins. Yesterday’s was…run 3/4 mile, walk for 5 minutes, run 3/4 mile. Okay, so then I look at today’s, and it jumped to “Run 2 miles without walking.”

Say whhaaaaaa?! You bout to make me skip from running two eight minute segments with a five minute break in between to running twenty minutes without breaks?? That escalated so quickly. You be cray. I’m going to try it in about an hour and see how it goes…I’ll probably be dying. And they’ll have to carry me out of the gym, pouring water on my face as we go.

To those of you who can run like twenty miles without stopping, I probably sound like such a baby right now. Shhhh…it’s fine. Just eat this broccoli and you’ll like me again ?.

For you 21 Day Fix people, here are your container amounts:

• 1 green container (broccoli)
• 1 blue containers (peanuts)
• 1 teaspoon (olive oil, sesame oil)

*The soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, honey, and pepper flakes are “free”*

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This recipe is gluten free.

If you make this or any of my other recipes, be sure to Instagram it and hashtag #thegarlicdiaries!

In the mood for more yummy broccoli dishes? Check these out:

15 Minute Veggie Stir Fry

Broccoli and Brussels Sprout Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette

30 Minute One Pot Broccoli Cheddar Soup