Lemon Garlic Broccoli with Bacon – Inspiralized!

Broccoli NOODLES. Have you ever heard of such a thing!? No. No, you haven’t.

My life has been forever changed with this brilliant invention. It’s called the Inspiralizer, and it turns baaaasically everything into NOODLES.

NOODLES!

I feel an all caps moment is appropriate here.

My awesome friend Ali Maffucci discovered this lil’ machine only a few years ago, fell ballistically in love, and now has a brand new cookbook completely devoted to getting spiralized!

However, I never know whether to say spiralized, or inspiralized, so I’ll just say both. You know, options.

Can you even believe that THOSE ^^^ are broccoli stems? And beyond that, once boiled a little, and sautéed in a kiss of bacon love, it is like, magic.

A while back, Ali graciously sent me the cookbook and spiralizer to play with. And would you like to know what’s spiraling the quickest? MY ADDICTION. I want to inspiralize everything! Shoes, high chairs, paper plates, bird houses. I might need to see someone.

Also, if you follow me on Snapchat, you’ll know that I had a little, um, mishap with the spiralizer while making this here recipe. You should know that my arm has indeed grown back. I’m like a star fish. But with a sad ponytail.

So this recipe is incredible. Kudos, Ali girl.

She boils the broccoli florets and noodles in boiling water for a little bit. Then transfers it to a pan to finish off in a gentle sauté with lots and lots of garlic, a little bit of crushed red pepper, loads of fresh lemon, and a heavy hand of parmesan cheese. Oh, AND BACON. Hi, yes forever please.

I served it alongside a roasted chicken and it.was.perfection.

And because I feel it’s necessary for our well beings as humans at this very moment, I’m showing you another photo of the exact same thing, only pulled back a little further. Breaking food blog rules is what I do.

All those noodles are BROCCOLI. Fork-tender, packed with lemony garlic flavor, fun-on-the-tongue (<–ew) noodles of broccoli.

Me thinks you need this Inspiralizer.

And the cookbook! Duh.

You gon’ get sooooo inspiralized.

Lemon Garlic Broccoli with Bacon – Inspiralized!

What it took for four:

* 3 large broccoli heads with thick stems (in the book it suggest which blade to use, so you’ll need the book for this!)
* 6 bacon slices (I dig thick cut)
* 2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
* 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
* pinch of salt and pepper
* 5 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced
* juice of 1 lemon, and the zest of half a lemon
* 3 Tbs. parmesan cheese

Slice off the broccoli florets, and set them to the side. Spiralize the broccoli stems according to the book. You’ll get huge stemmy noodles!

Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add the broccoli florets and broccoli noodles; cook for a couple of minutes until tender. Drain and pat dry.

Place a large skillet over medium heat and coat with a little cooking spray. Add the bacon slices and render to your crispy liking. Set the bacon aside and wipe the pan clean.

Return the pan to a medium heat, and add the olive oil. Once you see a shimmer, add the florets, noodles and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook for two minutes. Remove the lid, toss the goods, add the garlic, lemon juice and zest; cover and cook another five minutes, or until you start to see a little browning on the broccoli.

Take the pan off the heat and stir in the cheese! That’s the best part. Well, that and the bacon.

Toss everything together and serve!

* I do have affiliate links in this post, fyi. If you purchase an Inspiralizer, I get a few bucks! Just had to let you know, because the law.

I’ll think I’ll try to inspiralize a pillow next.