Roasted Broccoli & Sunchoke Pilaf with Spiced Cashews

I get bored easily.

Cooking with the same ingredients over and over again really irritates me, and I haven’t had much time to experiment outside my comfort zone recently. But this week, I decided the only way to create new dishes would be to make sure to BUY new ingredients. I added a few different items to my shopping cart that included things like mustard greens, fiddlehead ferns and for this recipe, sunchokes. I don’t see them often so when they had organic chokes at Whole Foods I snatched them up. They look like smaller, bumpy potatoes and have a similar, yet nuttier taste and texture to them. They roast up exactly the same and they paired nicely with the roasted broccoli and cashews.

1 large head broccoli, cut into florets

6 sunchokes, sliced into rounds

2 1/2 cups sweet brown rice, cooked

1 cup raw cashews, chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

Juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon

3 tbsp olive oil, divided

1 tsp sea salt, divided

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp paprika

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• On a baking sheet, cook broccoli, 3 cloves garlic, 1/2 tsp sea salt and black pepper and drizzle with 1 1/2 tbsp oil
• Roast at 400 degrees for 15 minutes
• Meanwhile, toss cashews with lemon juice and zest and paprika
• Remove broccoli from oven and bring heat to 425 degrees
• Toss sunchokes with 3 cloves garlic, 1 1/2 tbsp oil and salt
• Lay on a baking sheet and roast at 425 degrees for 20 minutes
• Remove from oven, and toss with broccoli, cashews and rice. Serve!