Broccoli Basil Bread

I've been incorporating a lot more vegetables to my recipes these days. Strangely, due to a family health scare, I actually spent several hours in the waiting room of the gastrointestinal wing at a hospital and probably 90 percent of the people there were in for their colonoscopies. No, I won't go into too much detail, but long story short, person after person, I kept hearing doctors and nurses say to the patients, "You don't have enough fiber in your diet."

And then I began thinking about how much fruits and vegetables I have in my diet. Doctors recommend at least six fistfuls of fruits and vegetables (though they are erring towards veggies because fruits also have a fair amount of sugar content) per day. I think about having a banana in the morning, an orange for lunch and maybe a palmful or two of veggies at night and that doesn't tally up.

And of course there are many studies about about vegetables, especially green ones, in the fight against cancer and in general, living a healthier life, so for me as an avid cook and baker, I don't see why I can't start stuffing the foods I love with ingredients that are better for my body.

This broccoli bread recipe is from one of my favorite vegetarian blogs called Green Kitchen Stories. They make the prettiest, most colorful, vegetarian dishes and the videos they do are magnificent. I somewhat "chef-ed up" this recipe, adding more of my own flavorings and a little extra virgin olive oil for texture and flavor. But really, how strong you want your bread to taste is up to you. Some people just want broccoli bread as the backdrop to the rest of their sandwich. Others want to highlight the flavor and so you adjust accordingly by adding various flavorings, which can include pesto, which I have tried.

The recipe works with garbanzo flour or almond meal depending on your diet. It comes out fluffy because of the eggs and I don't think the broccoli is overpowering at all.

Broccoli Basil Bread Recipe

(Makes 9 pieces of bread)

• 1 large head of broccoli
• 2 tablespoons chopped basil
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup garbanzo flour
• sea salt
• black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Rinse broccoli thoroughly.
3. Pulse broccoli, basil, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper until broccoli is in fine pieces.
4. Mix in eggs.
5. Fold in garbanzo flour.
6. Line a 13 1/2" x 9" sheet pan with parchment. Using hands or a spatula, spread mixture evenly.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the edges turn golden brown and the center is firm.
8. Let cool and cut into slices.