Racheli’s Broccoli Salad

My daughter in law Racheli is someone to whom my hubby and I aspire to be in terms of healthy eating (in addition to her many other worthy attributes 🙂 ). She always serves either salad or cut up veggies at every meal and when she and the kids come over, I know we have to stock up on fruits and veggies.

So, it makes sense that she has a few salads that I particularly love and I got the recipe from her. It’s a fairly simple recipe and it’s especially delicious if you use fresh broccoli for it since that is the main ingredient in the dish. I find it super simple to just steam in the microwave for about 8 minutes to get that raw taste out of the marvelous green veggie and it will still have a slightly “al dente” feel to it but not actually crunchy which I care for less than the al dente style.

If you don’t overcook them they are this gorgeous green color.

Once you’ve steamed the (cleaned and washed and separated into flowerets) broccoli you wash and dry a small head of lettuce, I particularly like the two toned green and red lettuce for lovely color and style. Tear the lettuce into large bits and put into a large salad bowl with the broccoli flowerets, add blanched, slivered almonds, a handful of craisins and some fine slices of onion, white or red. Toss gently and set aside.

Then, mix together mayo, sugar and vinegar to a smooth dressing, thinning a bit with water if necessary. Taste and adjust with salt if needed. Now I don’t pour the dressing (which is a generous amount) over the broccoli salad till I see the whites of my guests eyes (or if just me and DH, till he’s ready to eat) since this salad is fab when not soggy, so it must be tossed with the dressing at the last minute.

Pour dressing, toss thoroughly and let sit for a few minutes to absorb a bit. This can be served as a bowl of salad, or as individual salads on salad plates. It’s got that nice sweet and vinegar and onion thing going on and hits all the right notes on your tongue. Great all year round and especially nice and fresh on a warm day.

Racheli’s Broccoli Salad

One large or two small heads of kosher broccoli, carefully washed and cleaned, and with the tough bits chopped off and separated into flowerets or you can alternatively use frozen broccoli but lemme tell you, it ain’t the same. If you insist, however, use a full package 16 ounces or 454 grams of broccoli flowerets NOT cuts with the tough stems in them

1/2 a small onion, peeled and chopped into slivers

a small head of two toned lettuce, preferably, washed and cleaned and dried

1/3 cup of craisins

1/3 cup of blanched slivered almonds

For the dressing:

1 cup of mayonnaise

1/4 cup of sugar

1/3 cup of vinegar

a little water to thin the dressing if needed

Directions:

Take the cleaned broccoli and put into a microwavable bowl and zap the broccoli for about 8 minutes or until the broccoli is tender but has a bit of crunch. Take a nice sized salad bowl and put the broccoli flowerets in it and add the lettuce, which you tear into bite sized pieces, the craisins, and the nuts and the onion . Toss.

Mix together in a small bowl the ingredients for the dressing, the mayo, sugar and vinegar till smooth, adding a bit of water if needed so that it’s not too thick or thin and will cling nicely to the salad ingredients.

Keep the salad and dressing separate until ready to serve and then pour over the dressing, toss all the ingredients till well coated. Let sit for a few minutes until the flavors mingle and are a bit absorbed by the salad. Serve in a big bowl, or plate individually on salad plates. Yummy and fresh flavored!