Amazing Broccoli Salad
A couple of weeks ago I was assigned the task of whipping up a salad to bring to my nephew Tyson’s birthday party.
The thought of making a regular tossed salad didn’t stir my creative juices….I wanted to make something different, but easy, and most importantly, that everyone would eat!
I already had a head of broccoli in my fridge, so, taking that as my cue I started looking for broccoli salad recipes online.
I found a number of similar recipes that combined ingredients I would not have thought of myself, and everyone online absolutely raved about these salads, so I decided to give it a shot.
This is the basic recipe I started with, but I made a couple of substitutions that I describe below the recipe.
Broccoli Salad
- 10 slices bacon
- 1 head fresh broccoli, cut into bite size pieces
- 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup sunflower seeds
Directions
- Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine the broccoli, onion and raisins. In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, sugar and mayonnaise. Pour over broccoli mixture, and toss until well mixed. Refrigerate for at least two hours.
Before serving, toss salad with crumbled bacon and sunflower seeds.
Before I began this project, I knew that there would be people at the party who would not eat raisins. But I had some beautiful sweet & organic red grapes in my fridge, so I used those instead of raisins. They were a fantastic substitute!
I also had my doubts about using sunflower seeds…I like ‘em just fine but would everyone else? I toasted up some sliced almonds in a cast iron skillet to use in their place, and they were delicious in the salad.
I was fresh out of white wine vinegar so I used red wine vinegar instead. Someone at the party told me they had made this recipe once with regular white distilled vinegar and it did not taste as good as the salad I made, so I suspect using wine vinegar is important. It has a mellower flavor.
I doubled the amounts because of the size of the party I would be feeding, and put it together ahead of time so the flavors could meld
This salad was a huge hit! It was absolutely delicious!
Even people who said they didn’t like broccoli ate it, and asked for more!
Although I made this with two heads of broccoli, I only had one cup of mayonnaise on hand. That turned out to be enough dressing for the salad. So I think that the one cup called for in this recipe for a single head of broccoli will be too much…I would cut back, but use your judgment. It’s a great salad to make ahead for parties, and it was even better the next day.
Save the bacon bits & nuts or seeds to add just before serving, though, so they stay crunchy.
Bon Appetit!
Stephanie Kelley
