Roasted broccoli, poblano and meunster cheese sauce, and broccoli micro greens make for a quick, nutritious, and lip-smackingly good meatless monday or taco tuesday meal.

A few weeks ago, M decided that he didn’t like tacos. He still liked tortillas and all of the fillings, but brand anything as a “taco” and he was not interested. I only cared because often, the easiest route to dinner goes right through fridge-clearing-taco-ville. Maybe if I’d offered a Chocotaco he would have been into it? We’ll never know.

But while I was making these broccoli babies for the first time, he commented, “that smells really good.” Dear reader, he ate it. The whole thing. It was definitely the poblano cheese sauce, which I would like to put on everything for the rest of my life.

Instead of making a queso with cornstarch added at the end, I make a roux to start and added the cheese once the milk had thickened. I’m sure going the traditional queso route would also have been delicious. I just chose something else because life is about choices.

A couple of notes:

Keep an eye on the broccoli after about 15 minutes. The cooking time really depends on how fresh your broccoli is, how large your florets are, and how hot your oven runs.
Add in any other bits and bobs to the tacos that you want. I used broccoli because its a favorite in our house, but other roasted veggies or proteins would be delicious here.
Double the cheese sauce. Just do it. This recipe makes enough for about 6 tacos, but the sauce makes a delicious dip for chips or raw vegetables.

Broccoli tacos

Yield: 6 tacos
Time: About 40 minutes, mostly active

1 lb broccoli florets (buy 1.5 lbs because you’ll cut off the stalks)
3-4 Tbsp olive oil
Large pinch of salt
1 large poblano chili (or 1 small can of pre-roasted chili)
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
¾ cup whole milk
3 oz muenster cheese
1 oz cheddar cheese
½ tsp sea salt
¼ cup minced poblano chili
6 corn soft taco shells
Broccoli microgreens

Preheat the oven to 425. Spread out the broccoli florets on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil and large pinch of salt. Roast for 20-25 minutes, or until the broccoli is as crispy as you’d like. Stir the florets around on the sheet pan halfway through cooking.

While the broccoli is roasting, make the sauce.

Roast your poblano pepper. Turn on the stove burner and place the washed and dried pepper directly on the flame. Have a pair of tongs handy and turn the pepper every 30 seconds or so to ensure that it’s charred everywhere. This usually takes me about 5 minutes.

Once the skin is blistered all over, place the pepper in a large bowl or paper bag and either cover it with plastic wrap or a tea towel or close the paper bag tightly at the top. Let the pepper stand for 5-10 minutes until the steam has loosened the pepper’s skin. Check by pinching some of the pepper and the skin should slip off easily. If it doesn’t, let it steam for a few more minutes and try again.

Once the pepper has steamed, remove as much of the skin as you can, the top, and the inner seeds. Chop the pepper into small pieces. One pepper should make a scant ½ cup of chopped, roasted peppers.

In a small pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and let the mixture bubble lightly until it has turned a medium golden color, about 5 minutes.

Whisk in the milk and stir thoroughly to combine. Continue to stir as the milk bubbles very slightly on the edges. If the milk bubbles up too vigorously, turn down the heat. When the milk mixture has visibly thickened and coats the back of a spoon, add the salt and cheese and stir until the cheese has melted.

Stir in the chopped roasted poblanos.

Assemble the tacos.

Heat up the tortillas in a hot, dry pan for about 1 minute each. When hot, fill the shells with the roasted broccoli and top with the cheese sauce. Top with the broccoli microgreens, avocado, grated cotija cheese, and any other toppings you like.

Kale mac and cheese

Time: About 25 minutes, mostly active
Yield: About 4 cups or 30 oz

1 lb small, dry pasta
1 bunch Lacinto kale, leaves stripped off of the tough center ribs
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
2 cups milk, divided (I used whole, but you can certainly use a lower fat variety if you like)
½ cup reserved pasta/kale cooking water
6-7 cups shredded cheese (combination of any nutty cheese like cheddar, gruyere, gouda, and Parmesan)
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp sea salt
Several cracks of black pepper

Cook pasta according to package directions.

While the pasta cooks, melt the butter over medium-high heat in a large sauce pan. Add the flour, stir well, and let bubble for 1 minute.

Turn the heat down to medium-low, add 1 and 1/2 cups of milk, and whisk to combine.

Add garlic, salt, and pepper to the milk and stir to combine. Let the milk heat up until there are small bubbles forming along the sides of the pan, about 3-4 minutes. Add the cheese and stir until melted, allowing the cheese sauce to bubble slowly, but try not to get the sauce too hot, about 4-5 more minutes.

Remove pasta from boiling water and add kale to that same water. Blanch for 2 minutes and remove greens to a blender. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water.

Add the remaining ½ cup of milk to the green in the blender and puree until smooth, adding the reserved cooking water as necessary to puree the kale.

Add the greens to the cheese sauce and stir well. Allow the mixture to come up to a simmer again.

When both are cooked, combine 2 cups of the sauce with the cooked pasta and stir well. Add any additional toppings you might like.