I love grilling season. Which, where I live, essentially lasts from mid-February to mid-November.

During the summer, the Jason’s “vegetable” of choice is grilled corn. It could be worse, I guess – although lately he and Landry have really been digging the grilled green & purple beans from the garden.

His grilled corn on the cob usually comes slathered with a compound butter flavored with basil and parmesan or Mexican-style, slathered with a chipotle butter and topped with a pinch of crumbled queso fresco.

So when I saw a recipe for grilled broccoli with chipotle-lime butter in the latest Food & Wine, I was completely smitten – and pretty optimistic that I could get by with swapping out the corn for broccoli without too much protesting.

And I was right.

The broccoli was lightly charred and smokey. The chipotle-lime butter added volumes of flavor and just a little heat. My husband declared it the best broccoli he’s ever had, which, honestly, probably isn’t saying much. But I think it was one of the better preparations of broccoli that I’ve ever had. And I love broccoli!

Trying not to negate all the good, I only used half the butter that the original recipe called for and squeezed extra lime juice over top before serving. And just like that, everyone in this house enjoys broccoli.

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Grilled Broccoli with Chipotle-Lime Butter

Grilled broccoli topped with a flavorful chipotle-lime butter and queso fresco.

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp butter, softened
• 1 lime, zested and juiced + additional wedges for serving (optional)
• 1 canned chipotle, minced, + small spoonful of adobo sauce
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Salt
• Pepper
• 3 heads of broccoli, cut into florets
• Olive oil, for spraying or drizzling
• 1 cup queso fresco, crumbled

Instructions

1. Heat grill to medium-high.
2. Stir together all ingredients for the chipotle-lime butter and add a pinch of salt and pepper. (Or give it a whirl for ~10 seconds in your small chopper/food processor).
3. Spread broccoli on a large baking pan and drizzle/spray with olive oil.
4. Season with salt and pepper and then transfer to the heated grill.
5. Grill ~10 minutes, flipping or stirring halfway through - the pieces should have nice grill marks but not be too charred.
6. Transfer to a serving bowl and top with spoonfuls of chipotle-lime butter (I only used half the butter and refrigerated the rest).
7. Serve warm, topped with crumbled cheese.

Notes

Yields: 6 servings

Adapted from Food & Wine, May 2012

Estimated time: 30 minutes