Spicy Honey Sheet-Pan Tofu

...with green beans and peppers. Dinner's ready.

I’ve come to think of the broiler — that heat-blast setting on your oven, which might be located at the bottom and if it is you’d be fair enough to assume (as I once did, disastrously) that it’s just storage space — is the perfect cooking method for learning to trust your gut. The stakes are simply too high. One moment you’ve got a sheet pan full of delicious looking food that appears to be right on track for blistered or toasted perfection, and just 20 seconds later it’s… toast. With the broiler, you have to be on guard with all your senses. And you’ve got to develop a relationship with it, since each one seems to behave a little differently.

Once I learned the ins and outs of mine, I began to rely on it regularly. It’s fast, it adds both cosmetic and flavorful char, and it can handle a good volume of food. One friend and colleague who uses it with aplomb is Alexandra Stafford. I’d never seen the broiler mentioned so often in a cookbook until I read her wonderful Bread Toast Crumbs — and why not? It’s the perfect thing for batching slices of toast or open-faced sandwiches. Her Blistered [Broiled] Green Beans have been an inspiration to me for a while now, and in today’s recipe, I’ve riffed on her green bean method by adding sweet, jammy peppers and spicy honey-glazed tofu to create a healthy, hearty, sheet-pan dinner that I think you’re going to like.