Roasted Potatoes and Broccoli Recipe with Cheese and Bacon

“Make Me Something with Roasted Potatoes, Cheese and Bacon. A sheet pan supper recipe.”, my editor asked. “Make Something with Color”, my photographer-husband insisted. “Make Us Dinner”, my offspring ordered. “Make This Easy On Yourself”, my ego implored. The (successful) result of trying to please everyone? Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes and Broccoli with Cheese and Bacon.

So here’s what I did for my One Pan Plan Dinner: I oven fried 4 strips of bacon. (That means I cut 4 strips of bacon in half, laid them in my cast iron skillet, and let the oven do the work at 400º, for about 15 minutes.)

While the bacon was frying itself, I took a 3 lb. bag of petite Red Bliss Potatoes, cutting each potato into 4 wedges, and each wedge in half: basically they were bite sized chunks.

When the bacon was done, I removed it from the oven, removed the bacon from the pan, to drain on paper towels, and tossed the potatoes into the big cast iron skillet, stirring them around in the bacon grease and sprinkling them with a full teaspoon of salt.

Put them back in the oven, at the same temperature, to roast for about 20 minutes.

While the potatoes were roasting, I was cutting up fresh broccoli florets and stems. I pulled the potatoes out, gave them a stir, and added in the fresh broccoli, stirring some more, to coat the broccoli with bacon grease and salt, as well.

At this point, I added about a tablespoonful of olive oil, because when you roast broccoli, it needs to look a little “shiny”, and it wasn’t looking coated. A little more salt here, would not go amiss. Potatoes are notoriously difficult to over-salt, and the broccoli could use some.

I’ll pause here to add that this dish could easily be altered and made a vegetarian recipe, simply by omitting the bacon frying, and using olive oil as your only fat. And it would STILL be delicious! But…you know…bacon…

Give the broccoli roasting stage in the oven 20 minutes. Bring the pan back out, add in minced garlic and chopped fresh broccoli. Stir.

Now sprinkle over a lot of cheese. I think I used about 8 oz. Then crumble and sprinkle the bacon over the top of the whole beautiful lot.

The cheese will start melting immediately, but stick the whole pan back into the oven for about 2 minutes, to allow the garlic time to soften up and become integrated into the dish. (If you put the garlic on earlier, it will burn, and become bitter. And nobody wants that.)

In summary, set your oven to 400º:
Bacon in oven: 15 minutes.
Potatoes in oven: 20 minutes
Broccoli and potatoes in oven: 20 minutes
Garlic, rosemary, and cheese: about 2 more minutes.

Call it Oven-Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes and Broccoli, with Cheddar and Bacon.

Your children will rise up and call YOU blessed. Your photographer will pronounce it beautiful. And if you happen to have an editor, she’ll probably like it, too. And one more dinner is done.
Here’s the recipe, then, for

Sheet Pan Supper Recipe

Oven-Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes and Broccoli with Cheddar and Bacon

Ingredients:

4 strips of bacon
3 lbs. Red Bliss Potatoes, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 t. sea salt
2 stalks and crowns of fresh broccoli, cut into bite sized florets and slices
olive oil & more salt, to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 t. fresh rosemary, minced
8 oz. cheddar cheese, grated

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven to 400º. Cut slices of bacon in half and lay in bottom of cast-iron skillet.

Place in oven for approximately 15 minutes, or until bacon is crisp. Remove bacon from pan and place on paper towel to drain.

Stir potato chunks in bacon drippings, and sprinkle generously with salt.

Place back into oven for 20 minutes.

Remove skillet from oven, and stir in broccoli, adding additional olive oil, if necessary, so that broccoli has a thin coating of oil and more salt, if desired.

Place back in oven to roast another 20 minutes.

Remove skillet from oven, and stir in minced garlic and rosemary.

Sprinkle with grated cheese and place back in oven for cheese to melt: this should take another couple of minutes.
Serve, and enjoy.

Looking for more delicious recipes? Try these oven-roasted turnip fries.