Broccoli Salad

Simple and delicious broccoli salad with cranberries, pepitas, bacon, and Swiss cheese.

Broccoli Salad

By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime

Welcome back to the final day of #FarmersMarketWeek!

Today I am sharing a marinated broccoli salad with Swiss cheese, bacon, fruit and nuts. I always love having a fresh vegetable salad in the fridge ready for lunch and dinner.

This particular salad has its origins in cole slaw, with the natural shift in cruciferous vegetables from cabbage over to broccoli. And from there, it morphs over time until it becomes one of these many similar broccoli salad recipes with nuts or seeds, raisins and the like.

This one is pretty basic. There was another one I am trying to recall how it went – Dorothy B. my coworker, used to make it in a restaurant I used to work. It had red dressing, similar to Catalina or Russian, but that wasn’t it (I have tested this out). It was probably some weird version of tomato dressing, but as the years pass, my memory of it grows ever more faint. Between that and the cheese ambrosia salad my coworker Mary used to make, the details elude me. They are my pet projects for when I have extra time and having the recipe work isn’t vital to have for dinner (I have 86’d a few of my attempts). But I digress.

This recipe isn’t really one that taxes the brain, and just has a few details that are moderately unique, like the pepitas and cheese. I like cheese in broccoli salads (I have a broccoli mac and cheese salad somewhere around here) and I was going to use sunflower seeds but they seemed to have been devoured, and that package of pepitas I was going to use in a loaf of bread was still sitting there.

You know, sometimes you have to improvise.

I suppose I should say something really witty about farm markets. Actually I haven’t been there in a couple of weeks since I was getting sick of corn and cantaloupe and my tomatoes were doing alright here at home. There does come a time when one becomes sick and tired of the season’s bounty. I know I look forward to apples and the produce of autumn. Soon. Very very soon. This hot weather can take a hike too. That’s as far as my smart-arsed wit goes today.

I long to hike in the deep woods like a hobbit, with golden leaves falling all around me. And of course, eat mushrooms. That’s an autumn veggie too. But I think the temps need to drop about 10-20 to be comfortable out there. Don’t you think? I could recite elfish poetry and that would be very witty. Very witty indeed. Or at least a few lines of Keats?

Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave

Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;

Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,

Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;

She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,

For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Have a good weekend and thanks for joining me this week.

Broccoli Salad

Servings: 6-8
Time: 25mins
Difficulty: easy
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Allow 2-3 hours chill time

Ingredients:

12 ounces broccoli florets
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons Stevia in the Raw or granulated sugar
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup reduced sugar craisins (dried cranberries)
1/4 cup roasted pepitas (green pumpkin seeds)
3 ounces Swiss cheese, finely cubed

Method:

Blanch broccoli florets in boiling salted water one minute, then drain and rinse under very cold water and drain again.
Stir together the mayonnaise, vinegar and stevia/sugar (your choice).
Chop broccoli and mix with the dressing along with remaining ingredients.
Chill several hours before serving.

From the kitchen of palatableastime.com