Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Broccoli salad

At last week's neighborhood potluck, we had a new family attending who brought a broccoli salad. It was so delicious I had three helpings (I ate nothing else!) and I even brought some extra home, which I had for breakfast the next day. I begged them to send me the recipe, which they kindly did.

As with most salad-style dishes, ingredients can be adjusted to account for personal tastes and preferences.

Here is the original recipe they sent:

4-6 broccoli crowns
1/4 lb. bacon bits
2 cups shredded cabbage
2 cups craisins
3/4 cup sunflower seeds or pine nuts
1/2 red onion

Dressing:

2 cups mayonnaise
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
1 Tbsp basil
2 pinches of salt

In a large mixing bowl place broccoli, craisins, red onion, cabbage and sunflower seeds. Cook up your bacon in diced pieces. Drain off most but not ALL the grease.

In a small mixing bowl mix up the ingredients for the dressing. Add to salad mix, then add remaining bacon with a little bacon grease.


Here's the thing: I adore broccoli. I also adore onions. Anything that mixes these two vital ingredients together is likely to be a huge hit with me.

So today I made my own rendition of their broccoli salad. I shredded half a cabbage...


...and cut up a bunch of red onions. These are the last of the red onions from our garden, and I was glad for an excuse to use them up, since they're starting to go bad (red onions don't have a long shelf life, at least not without a root cellar).


Broccoli. Yummm, lots of broccoli.


I threw in about a cup of sunflower seeds.


I had bacon bits in the freezer, so I scooped out about 3/4 cup and popped them in the microwave for a few seconds to thaw.


I'm not a huge fan of craisins, so I skipped that ingredient.

This is the resulting dry mix.


Then I mixed up the dressing. Altogether the recipe listed above makes a huge amount (think potluck!), so dial it back if you want a smaller amount. As it was, it filled my biggest mixing bowl almost to overflowing, so I ended up transferring things to a three-gallon pot so I could mix without slopping stuff over the edge.


But the results -- ooh la la -- absolutely delicious. Don and I have been snacking on it all day.


This would be an excellent summer dish for when the garden produce is ripening (not to mention a cool dish for hot weather), but since it has both broccoli and onions, I don't care what time of year it is -- it's going to become a staple in my kitchen repertoire.

6 comments:

  1. Miss Patrice it does sound delicious! Does the recipe work well with substitutes? Using raisins instead of craisins? Or even adding things like grapes? Did it take very long to make?

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    1. I'd say, add whatever the heck you want. You almost can't go wrong with this.

      - Patrice

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  2. We make that almost exactly but without the cabbage (but how yummy! I'll try that) or basil and Italian seasoning, and raisins instead of craisins. It's even better the second day. Our Easter dinner wouldn't be complete without it. Drats! Now I'm hungry....

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  3. This sounds so yummy! We serve something similar in our deli, but it has a sweeter dressing, more like a poppyseed type dressing, with cashews and mandarin oranges along with the broccoli, bacon, red onion and craisins. I'm interested to try this with the tangier dressing!

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  4. I have two different recipes for broccoli salad, but this sounds absolutely fantastic...Thank your new neighbors for sharing this, as I will try it outfor Thanksgiving with my daughter and two grandsons....
    Love from NC

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  5. Patrice, this is similar to a recipe my family has been using for about 20 years. Every one loves it and it is a fixture at our family Thanksgiving dinner each year. (And yes, most of us eat more of this salad than anything else on the table.)

    Our recipe does not have craisins or raisins but does have shredded cheddar cheese. Try your recipe with the cheese added, it enhances the flavour and adds a great texture.



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