Everyone loves a two-for-one deal. Seriously, who can turn down a good buy one, get one free sale? This pin for a scrumptious-seeming Parmesan Broccoli Mashed Potatoes side dish certainly had that same twofer appeal rolling the starch and veggie side dishes into one, and I was helpless to resist.

The pin links to a foodgawker post (and in case you’re unfamiliar with foodgawker, it’s basically food porn with links to recipes), which directs you to this One Lovely Life blog post. The blog is done by this lovely couple (see what I did there?) named Emily and Michael who have put together a visually stunning blog that mostly focuses on food, but sprinkles in bits about their lives and their adorable daughter. Their recipeindex is extensive and sorted into 23 helpful categories like “Breakfast & Muffins,” “Pasta & Rice,” “Main Dishes: Chicken & Turkey,” and “Main Dishes: Meatless.”

Ingredients

4-5 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into small pieces (about 1½”)

2c broccoli florets, uncooked

4 Tbsp butter

½c milk

½c fresh parmesan, grated

salt and pepper to taste (I used about 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper)

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potato pieces and broccoli and boil 15-20 minutes, or until potatoes are very soft and can easily be mashed with a fork. Drain broccoli and potatoes well.

All ready to mash

Place drained vegetables in a large bowl with butter, milk, and parmesan. With a hand mixer, whip mixture until very smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste (I used about 1 tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper).

Serve warm.

How it went

“Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.” I’m pretty sure even my dad could handle this part of the recipe without any trouble, and he doesn’t really do any cooking that doesn’t involve a microwave or grill. No further comments here.

“Add potato pieces and broccoli and boil 15-20 minutes, or until potatoes are very soft and can easily be mashed with a fork.” This step definitely topped the 20-minute mark for me. I ended up using five potatoes and two cups frozen broccoli florets, so I’m pretty sure this extended the cooking time.

“Drain broccoli and potatoes well.” Well my trusty blue colander made this one easy work.

“Place drained vegetables in a large bowl with butter, milk, and parmesan.” I used margarine instead of butter (I’m on a budget, here), skim milk, and the shredded parmesan cheese that comes with a green lid in grocery stores everywhere.

“With a hand mixer, whip mixture until very smooth.” For this one, I busted out my mom’s trusty hand mixer, which I inherited when I moved out post-college. It’s got a solid 10 years on me, but it’s still in excellent shape and could probably mix circles around the hand mixers made today. Having used this mixer hundreds of times to great success, this is where I got a bit thrown off. I could not for the life of me get this mixture “very smooth.” So after minutes and minutes as another recipe burned in my oven (I’ll blog about that later), I settled on fairly lumpy.

“Add salt and pepper to taste (I used about 1 tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper). Serve warm.” I probably flipped the quantities here, definitely leaning toward more pepper and less salt, because my dining companion isn’t much for salt (seriously, you’d think a guy who owns two salt shakers would be more into salt).

The finished product, lumps and all.

Results

This one was a hit with my friend and I. It’s got this great creamy texture to it (even with the lumpy bits) that instantly reminds me of homemade mash potatoes and family dinners and holidays. This flavorful dish isn’t a super veggie-tasting dish, which would be great for getting picky eaters to eat veggies. The strongest flavors that come out are parmesan cheese, then a blend of the broccoli and mashed potatoes. I’m sure the broccoli flavor would have been more powerful if I’d used fresh broccoli, but this dish definitely tastes exactly like it sounds it would with a name like Parmesan Broccoli Mashed Potatoes.

I’m a big broccoli lover and a serious fan of potatoes, so I usually have both on hand (Re: making Gwyneth Paltrow No Fry Fries). That combined with the easiness of this recipe and its crowd-pleasing two-for-one appeal should make this an easy repeat in my kitchen.

Honestly, I think this is another recipe that could be adjusted by switching out the parmesan cheese for cheddar, mozzarella, or some other cheese of your preference. You could probably leave the cheese out entirely if you want to cut the dairy factor a bit.

Check One Lovely Life out on Twitter at @onelovelylife and don’t forgot to check out Emily and Michael’s blog at www.onelovelylife.com. 

And I'm sorry they are not more pictures, I was juggling/burning another recipe and trying to finish up a batch of cookies, too.

— Nicole Franz | NiFranz@News-Herald.com | @FranzOrFoe
Follow my Mission: Pinpossible board on Pinterest.

All sliced up and ready to go.

So I haven’t gone grocery shopping in a while, and was trying to come up with a Sunday afternoon pre-work meal that would fill me up for a night of editing and page design without making me feel guilty. I rummaged through my pantry and fridge and didn’t find too much that was striking my fancy. I did have potatoes though and remembered pinning something about a healthier french fries recipe recently.

So while I nuked some frozen vegetables in the microwave (I’m a big fan of frozen veggies as a snack/meal with some combination of cheese, spices or salsa) I found this pin touting Gwyneth Paltrow’s No-FryFries from her cookbook, “My Father’s Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness.”

If you click on the pin it links you to Self and a full recipe, but again I went with what was on the actual pin.

What was the point of dunking them in water?

Instructions

"Gwyneth Paltrow's No-Fry Fries, just cut up your potatoes and place them in a bowl of cold water, then dry them off and toss them with olive oil, place them on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with sea salt, then bake at 450 for about 25 minutes, turning occasionally."

How it went

I grabbed two Idaho potatoes and scrubbed them down, which is much harder to do effectively without a scrub brush, but I digress. I turned on my oven before I tracked down a cutting board and knife.

I didn’t skin my potatoes, because it didn’t say to on the pin (though it does on the Self recipe), so all I had to do was hack up the potatoes into fry-shaped strips. I cut the potatoes in half first to facilitate easier cutting.

Then I tossed the potatoes in a Rubbermaid container that I knew had a lid and added enough water to cover them. I’m not entirely sure what this step did, unless it was meant to clean the potatoes further. 

Seriously, was this for cleanliness? I already scrubbed the potatoes.

I went a tad overboard on the olive oil.

Then I drained out the water and tossed the potatoes on some paper towels so I could pat them dry with another paper towel.

I dried out the container I just had the fries in and dumped them back in there along with about 3 tablespoons of olive oil. I put the lid on and shook the potatoes up until I felt they were solidly mixed (a few healthy shakes).

I decided I wanted to be super lazy and put aluminum foil over my cookie sheet, which I sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Then I fished the potatoes out of the container with a slotted spoon so I wouldn’t end up wasting a ton of olive oil (that stuff’s expensive!) on the cookie sheet.

I arranged them haphazardly on the sheet and then tossed a bit of sea salt on them.

Oiled up and ready for the beach (or my oven).

I placed them on the middle rack of my oven and promptly forgot about them for 25 minutes. The pin says to turn them occasionally (how vague is that?), but I didn’t bother.

They're so shiny!

I pulled them out after 25 minutes and tossed them on a plate for easy eating.

Results

Maybe I should have turned these, or perhaps taken them out a little earlier.

This was crazy easy to make. It required almost no effort, and the fries were a satisfying substitute for regular old fried french fries. Some of the fries turned out a little crunchier (read burnt) than I would have liked, but most of them were the perfect amount of crispy.

The water part and subsequent drying of the recipe seemed a little bit unnecessary and wasteful. I’d probably skip this step in the future and see how it goes.

I wasn’t sure how much olive oil to use and definitely overdid it on that part, but I ended up just tossing my veggies in the olive oil with some spices and a little Parmesan cheese and it ended up very yummy and not wasteful. The Self version of this recipe says to use 2 tablespoons of olive oil. That would probably have been a perfect amount, and I wouldn’t have felt the need to fish my fries out of the container with a slotted spoon.

I also overcooked them a bit (big surprise). I am eventually going to figure out how to bake things perfectly in my oven (and then I'm promptly going to move out of my apartment probably). 

I will definitely make these again, so kudos to Gwyneth Paltrow. I really enjoyed her turn as Pepper Potts in the “Iron Man” and “Avengers” movies, and she showed how multitalented she is with a turn on “Glee” and now this cookbook. Thanks to those distinctive roles, I’ve finally managed to not confuse her with Cate Blanchett.

UPDATE

Thanks to my college friend and Post colleague Emily Carroll I learned that the water removes excess starch and helps make the fries crispier. So apparently dunking the potatoes in water is a worthwhile step. (5:32 p.m. Oct. 1, 2012)

— Nicole Franz | NiFranz@News-Herald.com | @FranzOrFoe

Follow my Mission: Pinpossible board on Pinterest.