Broccoli Salad with Peanut Dressing

April has not been good for blogging. The Day Job will eventually destroy me, and this month was a clear reminder of that. I will spare you the boring details.

You know what’s not boring, though? Spicy peanut dressing! Pour it over some blanched broccoli and edamame enhanced with green onion and topped with peanuts and you have a rather satisfying lunch.

I adapted this recipe from one I found on Pinterest. I wasn’t sure I needed to blanche the broccoli, but, since each bite of this salad is mainly broccoli, it certainly does make it easier to eat. Blanched broccoli also has a texture more compatible with the slightly chewy edamame. You could add other vegetables to this salad, too, such as bell peppers, sugar snap peas, or green beans, and if you want it all very crunchy, you could probably forgo blanching.

I really love the peanut dressing for this salad, which is thick and savory and sweetened with a bit of honey. I roughly doubled the volume of dressing from the original recipe, and added some Sriracha for heat. I kept the spice moderate, but you could certainly adjust to your personal taste. (But, really, spicy is better, right?)

We (two of us) ate this whole batch of salad for lunch, but if you want to serve it as a side dish, you could get more like four servings out of it. You could also probably double the recipe, though you may want to blanche the broccoli in two batches if you do. And doubling this recipe might just be a good idea, so you can either keep eating it or save some leftovers for later. Actually, I don’t know if this salad keeps well or not. We devoured consumed it all immediately. I guess I’ll have to make some more to find out. Perhaps a double batch.

Broccoli and Edamame Salad with Peanut Dressing

Adapted from Gimme Some Oven

You can replace the honey in the dressing with agave nectar or maple syrup to make it vegan.

4 cups small broccoli florets

1 cup frozen edamame

½ cup thinly sliced green onions

¼ cup smooth peanut butter

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons roasted peanut oil (or sesame oil)

2 teaspoons Sriracha (or other hot sauce), or to taste

½ cup chopped roasted peanuts

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Prepare a large bowl of ice water.

2. When the water is boiling, add the broccoli. Boil for 2 minutes. Add the edamame. Cook for about 30-45 seconds more. Remove the blanched broccoli and edamame from the boiling water with a skimmer or slotted spoon. Plunge into the ice water to stop cooking. Allow to stand in the ice water until cooled. Drain very well.

3. To make the dressing, combined the peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce, honey, peanut oil, and Sriracha in a small bowl. Whisk until very smooth. Pour the dressing over the drained broccoli and edamame and toss to coat well. Sprinkle with the chopped peanuts.

Makes about 4 side dish servings or 2 big main dish servings.

Other recipes like this one: Peanutty Noodles, Broccoli with Sweet and Spicy Almond Sauce, Sweet and Tart Broccoli Salad, Broccoli and Chickpea Salad with Mustard Pepper Dressing

Why Not Broccoli?

I collect about seven million recipes every year. (I’m exaggerating…a little.) And so when I finally get around to going through them, I’ve often missed the season for some of the more interesting ones. Take, for instance, a recipe for Spicy-Sweet Green Beans from Food Matters by Mark Bittman. This summer, I had plenty of green beans with which to try this treatment, but, of course, the notes I took on the recipe were buried in a notebook that was buried in some other papers, which were in turn buried in the ubiquitous clutter when we moved.

So now I have this recipe, but no beans, except, perhaps, for those that would have been grown a thousand miles away in the Emerald City or somewhere else perpetually green. What I was really interested in was the sauce anyway, so I looked at the last few CSA boxes of the season and said, “Why not broccoli?”

Broccoli is always a good vehicle for sauces, since its bushy, bushy green hairdo is lovely for trapping flavors like a mop. This sauce, which is quite thick, didn’t so much ooze into the broccoli florets as coat the whole piece with its rich spicy, sweet, salty, tangy goodness. You kind of have to scoop up the sauce with the broccoli rather than soak it up, but the result is just as good.

Actually, this isn’t really about the broccoli. It’s about the sauce. I don’t care whether it gets scooped by or soaked into my vegetables, or even what vegetables they are (I think it would be good with steamed cauliflower or sautéed cabbage as well as the green beans in the original recipe). It’s about the sauce, I tell you. This sauce is fabulously delicious. This sauce is one of my new favorite foods. I’m trying to think of a way to slather it on every meal. I’m thinking of giving it out to trick-or-treaters.

Okay, that might be going too far, but this is maddeningly good stuff with a sharp, strong, wake-you-up flavor from lots of garlic, plenty of dried chiles, honey and soy sauce. The sweet and the spicy are beautifully balance and the salty-tangy (some would say umami-filled) soy sauce and sturdy ground almonds fill in all the flavor spaces. The only thing I might consider adding is a bit of sesame oil. That, however, might totally blow my mind. If so, I’ll take full responsibility. I doubt I’ll be able to blame it on the broccoli anyway.


Broccoli with Sweet and Spicy Almond Sauce
Adapted from Food Matters by Mark Bittman

1 pound broccoli florets
½ cup whole almonds
2 large (or 3 medium) garlic cloves
2 dried hot chiles
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons soy sauce

1. Place the broccoli in a microwave-safe dish. Add about 2 tablespoons water and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Poke several holes in the plastic wrap with a knife (this will allow steam to escape).

2. Microwave the broccoli for 3 minutes on high. Carefully remove the plastic wrap, avoiding any escaping steam. The broccoli should be tender-crisp, but you can steam it longer if you like. Drain the broccoli. Set aside.

3. Combine the almonds, garlic, dried chiles and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a food processor. Process until a coarse paste is formed. If the mixture is too dry to form a paste, add a little more olive oil. Set aside.

4. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, for about 3 minutes or until the onion is soft and beginning to brown. Add the almond mixture from the food processor and cook about 2 minutes more. This mixture is fairly sticky in the pan, so you’ll want to stir and scrape it up frequently.

5. Stir in the honey and soy sauce. Add the cooked broccoli and toss to coat with the sauce mixture. Cook just until heated through.

Makes about 4 side-dish servings.

Other recipes like this one: Sesame-Soy Asparagus with Ginger and Garlic, Spicy Sesame Cabbage and Zucchini, Szechuan Broccoli and Water Chestnut Stir Fry

One year ago: Chard Soup with Cilantro and Lime

Two years ago: Homemade Pizza

Potato Salad Goes Green

In a bowl of potato salad there was some green. Not a nasty, dirty, wet green with the fuzz of mold and an oozy smell, nor a dry, pretentious green, not worth sitting down to and not fit to eat: it was potato salad, and that means comfort.

And those of you who haven’t committed the first lines of The Hobbit to memory can enjoy this potato salad, too. It’s just as easy as any other potato salad, but can help you use up some of the other stuff you have languishing in the refrigerator..er..um…has more healthy and delicious green vegetables than you might typically see in this summer staple food.

This all started with a creamy tarragon dressing recipe for potato salad that I think I clipped from Martha Stewart Living Magazine ages ago. My tarragon plant survived the winter and has been growing nicely on my patio, so it was time to use some. I also had lots of broccoli and green beans from the CSA (the potatoes, creamy and sweet Yukon gold new potatoes with very thin skins, were from there as well.) Those greener things were destined to supplement the potatoes in a nice and tasty salad.

I steamed the beans and broccoli just a bit. I still wanted them to have some crunch and still taste like vegetables and not boiled green mush, but I also wanted to take the harder raw edge off of them so they would be more pleasant to eat in the salad. I used to microwave to steam them, much like I did for the asparagus in this recipe, then shocked them by running them under cold water, drained them well, and chilled them until I was ready to finish the salad.

The potatoes I boiled in their skins until cooked through, which, to me, is the only way to prepare them for salad. I let them cool, then chilled them as well. I find that cooked potatoes slice much more neatly when they are completely cold. You could peel the potatoes after cooking them, but since mine were organic, I left the very soft and thin skins intact.

The dressing started out as a simple vinaigrette laced with tarragon and thickened with sour cream. I let it stay pretty creamy, but I really bumped up the Dijon mustard content considerably and cut back the sour cream. The result was nice and tangy and the Dijon goes well with the tarragon, which is present but not overwhelming. You could use more if you love it, or replace it with another herb if wish. I think thyme would be good, and so might basil, thinly sliced, or chiffonade if you cook with your pinky finger extended.

I suppose the flavors and style of this salad might be considered French-influenced. Really for me, it was influenced by the fabulous fresh and green summer vegetables I happened to have on hand. That and a love of new potatoes in salads. I could eat potato salads every week and they’re so easily variable, who knows what I’ll be able to try next…. Spuds “go ever ever on.”


Potato, Broccoli and Green Bean Salad with Tarragon Mustard Dressing

1 pound boiling potatoes (I had Yukon gold new potatoes), about 4 medium-size potatoes
8 ounces broccoli crowns, cut into bite-size florets
4 ounces green beans, stem ends trimmed, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon coarse salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh tarragon

1. Scrub the potatoes clean. Place them in a large pot of cold water. Bring to a boil and cook, boiling moderately until the potatoes can be pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes (but rely on tenderness more than time). Cool the potatoes, then chill completely.

2. Place the broccoli and beans in a microwave-safe container. Add a splash of water. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Punch several holes in the plastic with a knife. Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Carefully remove the plastic wrap, avoiding any steam. Plunge the broccoli and beans in ice water or run very cold water over them to stop the cooking. Drain well and chill.

3. To make the dressing, combine the vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Slowly add the olive oil, whisking until well-combined. Stir in the sour cream and tarragon. Set aside.

4. Peel the potatoes if desired (I didn’t). Quarter them and cut into about ½ inch slices. Place in a large bowl with the broccoli and beans. Add the dressing and toss well to combine.

Makes 6-8 servings. Leftover salad will keep for a few days refrigerated.


Other recipes like this one: Lemon Herb Potato Salad, Broccoli and Chickpea Salad with Mustard-Pepper Dressing

One year ago: Turkey Burgers with Cilantro Lime Aioli

Two years ago: Pickled Sugar Snap Peas

Broccoli Casserole

Our CSA farm grows some fine brassicas. And now is the time when they’re coming in full force, with a recent huge head of bok choy, and big bunches of broccoli in each of the last two weeks’ boxes. I was glad for the second bunch so soon, because that gave me a chance to change a few things in this broccoli casserole recipe right away and try it again.

The recipe starts with a big pile of lovely, dark green, nutritious, vitamin rich, fiber-filled broccoli. If you happen to be a health nut, however, it kind of goes downhill from there. I slathered the broccoli in a mustardy cheddar cheese sauce and topped it with, instead of breadcrumbs, big rye bread croutons with a coating of more mustard and butter.

This all started from a couple different broccoli casserole recipes I had tried that were pretty good, but fell a little short, probably because they were attempts to lighten a pretty caloric dish and add some flavor elements that just weren’t filling the gaps. I went back to a good ol’ roux-based, mustard-laced cheese sauce for my broccoli, and I have no regrets. (I stay away from bathroom scales when I’m going to be writing about food.)

I’m not sure how I got the idea for the mustard croutons for the topping of the casserole, but I think it quickly followed the idea that I was too lazy to make decent breadcrumbs. I had some notes to myself to try a mustard breadcrumb topping, but I couldn’t find the recipe in time (not a rare occurrence) so I did what made sense to me: I mixed plain and coarse Dijon mustard with melted butter and coated chunks of caraway rye bread with the mixture. I used a homemade bread, which I liked because I could cut it as thickly as I wanted. You could use whatever bread you want, but get it unsliced or thickly sliced if you can, so you can make a big, crunchy rustic topping. I really like brassicas with caraway, mustard and rye (broccoli sandwich, anyone?) and I thought the balance of those flavors was quite nice in this casserole.

This dish does take a long time to make, but as it bakes, you can prepare some quick additions to your meal. Just because it’s more of a side dish doesn’t mean it can’t be the star of the show. I served it with a fried ham steak and a green salad suspiciously similar to this one. Just remember, no matter what you have done to the broccoli, it’s still broccoli. You’re still eating your veggies. If they just happen to be more comforting and taste better with cheese sauce and rye bread, there’s really nobody to blame.

Broccoli Cheese Casserole with Mustard Rye Croutons

Microwaved leftovers of this dish are kind of soggy, but still good. I warmed the leftovers in the microwave, then heated them in the oven at 350 F (or perhaps you could use the broiler) until the topping was crisp.

1 pound (about 500 g) broccoli crowns and tender stems
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided (1 ½ ounces or about 40 g)
1 heaping cup onion, thinly sliced (about 5 ounces or 125 g)
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) coarse salt, divided
1 tablespoon (15 ml) all-purpose flour
1 cup (250 ml) milk (I used 2 %)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) coarse grain mustard, divided
¼ teaspoon (1.5 ml) black pepper
1/8 teaspoon (0.75 ml) freshly grated nutmeg
4 ounces (about 125 g) shredded cheddar cheese (about 2 cups)
5 ounces (about 150 g) rye bread, cut into 1- 1 ½ inch cubes
1 tablespoon (15 ml) regular Dijon mustard

1. Cut the broccoli crowns and stems into bite-size pieces. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add a small handful of salt. Add the broccoli and cook 3 minutes. Drain very well, getting out as much water as possible and set aside.

2. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and ¼ teaspoon salt and cook, stirring occasionally about 5 minutes or until the onion has softened and is beginning to brown. Remove the onion from the pan and set aside.

3. Return the pan to the heat and reduce the heat to medium-low. Add 1 tablespoon butter. When the butter has melted, slowly whisk in the flour. Cook and whisk about 1 minute. Make sure there are no flour lumps.

4. Slowly whisk in the milk. Cook, stirring frequently until the mixture begins to boil. Cook at a gentle boil about 1 minute, or until the mixture starts to thicken, stirring constantly. Stir in 1 tablespoon coarse mustard, remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, black pepper and nutmeg. Remove from the heat. Add the cheese and stir until melted. Set aside.

5. Preheat the oven to 400 F (200 C). Put the broccoli in a shallow 2 quart (2 liter) baking dish. Spread the onions evenly over the top of the broccoli. Pour the cheese sauce evenly over the broccoli and onions, spreading and gently mixing to get it evenly distributed.

6. Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon (15 ml) butter in a small saucepan. Whisk in the regular Dijon mustard and the remaining 1 tablespoon (15 ml) coarse mustard. Place the bread cubes in a large bowl. Pour the butter mixture over them and toss gently to coat.

7. Distribute the bread cubes on top of the broccoli mixture. Bake at 400 F (200 C) for 40 minutes. If the bread is getting too dark in color at any point, loosely tent it with foil. Cool 5-10 minutes before serving.

Makes about 4-6 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Broccoli and Chickpea Salad with Mustard-Pepper Dressing, Summer Squash Casserole with Basil and Onion

One year ago: Caramel Dip for Apples

Stem Slaw

So, you’ve eaten the dark green part of your broccoli stalk, the most desirable part, the floret, the part that soaks up stir fry sauces and salad dressings like a little edible mop. Now you’ve got the rest of that stalk. You paid good money for it, or put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into growing it yourself. You can’t throw it away. Sure, you could compost it if you’ve got a compost heap already going. That sturdy stalk, however, sacrificed itself to form the very foundation from which those tasty florets were able to reach their full glory. It deserves better. I say, eat it.

You could make it into a soup, but I have yet to have great success with broccoli soups. My guess is that they are typically loaded with cheese for a reason. What I do with leftover broccoli stems is peel them, shred them and toss them with some kind of dressing that allows that humble stalk to graduate to slaw. You can buy broccoli slaw in bags in your supermarket produce department, but I’m sure you’ll pay about a bajillion percent more for that, along with the stalk-less florets sold nearby. Does broccoli need such deconstruction to satisfy our modern culinary needs? You make the call.

When I made my most recent bowl of stem slaw, I also added another shredded stem to the mix: kohlrabi. If you’re not familiar with kohlrabi, it’s a kind of Old World cabbage relative. Really, the part that is most tasty is basically a cabbage stem on steroids. The leaves grow out from this spherical stem, but they’re pretty puny in comparison. Kohlrabi ranges in size from that of a tennis ball up to softball-size and beyond in the variety known as “Kossak” (probably the Gigante cultivar.) I was only able to get a hold of those big ones (which are an amazing value in this part of the country) to make this salad. They taste a little like cabbage, a little like mild turnips, and if you have any leftover after making a slaw, they are great cut into sticks and munched on along with other crudite offerings or as a snack.

I combined caraway seeds and coriander seeds along with a little lemon juice in the creamy dressing for this slaw. Really, you could use just about any coleslaw dressing you like, or even the dressings used to make Asian-style cabbage salads. After all, kohlrabi and broccoli are just cabbage cousins anyway. I think all of the Brassica plants are undersung anyway, so let’s give their lowly (or in the case of kohlrabi, overachieving) stems and stalks at least a few moments to shine, and get our money’s worth in the process.

Broccoli Stem and Kohlrabi Slaw
Be sure to peel all of the tough outer layers from the broccoli stems and kohlrabi. The kohlrabi especially has some fibrous layers just beneath the skin that are best left out of a salad.

8 ounces kohlrabi, peeled
8 ounces broccoli stem, peeled
1 medium carrot, peeled
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon caraway seeds, crushed
½ teaspoon whole coriander seeds, crushed
½ teaspoon coarse salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper½ cup onion, thinly sliced

1. Cut the peeled kohlrabi and broccoli stems into pieces that fit into the feed tube of a food processor with a shredding disk. Shred the kohlrabi, broccoli stem and carrot using the food processor shredding disk.

2. In a large bowl, combine the sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice, caraway seeds, coriander seeds, salt and pepper. Whisk to combine.

3. Add the shredded kohlrabi, broccoli stem, carrot and onion to the bowl. Stir to coat well with the sour cream mixture.

Makes about 6 servings. Leftovers can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days. (Leftovers may become watery.)

Other recipes like this one: Crunchy Cabbage, Cauliflower and Apple Salad, Cabbage Slaw with Spicy Peanut Dressing, Red Cabbage Slaw with Apples and Cranberries

One year ago: Rhubarb Yogurt Cake

Simple Broccoli Stir Fry

Well, summer is here. The calendar says so. The weather agrees. Even the type of vegetables riding in my CSA box are admitting the truth. It’s not just leafy greens that grew quickly in the cooler spring weather. Green beans and sugar snap peas have arrived as have a few beets (quickly turned into Beet and Carrot Burgers, so I don’t have to face them for long) and, perhaps best of all, broccoli.

Last year I posted two recipes for broccoli salads (this one and this one), but I know I made a simple broccoli stir fry with Szechuan peppercorns and water chestnuts several times as well. It was time to quantify those ingredients I was just flinging around and share them in the form of a real recipe. It’s very easy to make and has just five ingredients, including the frying oil (I used peanut oil, but you could use whatever neutral-flavored oil you have on hand).

If you’re not familiar with Szechuan peppercorns, they are not at all the same as the black peppercorns you keep in the grinder next to the salt shaker. They are nice and spicy, but they have an additional curious quality to their spice, almost a floral note, and their zip strikes the tongue a bit differently than black pepper, or even chile peppers. I like the way they create a sort of zing down the sides of my tongue (especially the right side, for some reason. Maybe that’s just where I most often chew.) I love these little things, which are more dark brown than black, and look more like little round broken, desiccated seed pods than the tiny dried berries that black pepper resembles. (Sorry, I didn’t get any good photos.) You can get them from Penzeys Spices if you can’t find them anywhere else. I left this stir fry quite simple just to feature their flavor more…oh yeah, and that of the broccoli, too.

This dish is best with fresh broccoli florets and a few of the more tender parts near the top of the stem. The florets soak up the soy sauce and Szechuan peppercorn flavor like little mops. I like to keep them fairly crisp (this is another one of those vegetables I think gets ruined by cooking it too much), which goes well with the irrepressibly crisp water chestnuts. I like to use whole water chestnuts cut in half rather than the sliced ones, because I prefer their chunkiness. You can use sliced water chestnuts if you cannot fine them whole.

Even though this stir fry is best with broccoli florets, don’t just throw away the stems. People are actually making good money on shredded broccoli stems, sold as “broccoli slaw.” You can cash in by not tossing out, especially if you have a food processor with a shredding disk. Hmmm…this sounds suspiciously like a teaser for the next post. See you then!

Szechuan Broccoli and Water Chestnut Stir Fry

2 tablespoons peanut oil or canola oil
1 ½ teaspoons Szechuan peppercorns, lightly crushed
12 ounces broccoli florets and tender stems
8 ounce can whole water chestnuts, drained, halved
¼ cup soy sauce (I use reduced sodium)

1. Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan over high heat. Add the Szechuan peppercorns and sizzle them about 15 seconds.


2. Add the broccoli and water chestnuts and stir fry about 5 minutes, or until the broccoli is just beginning to get brown in a few spots.

3. Add the soy sauce and cook about 3 more minutes, stirring frequently. The broccoli will still be quite crisp. Serve with rice.

Makes about 3 main-dish servings (with rice) or 5-6 side dish servings.

Other recipes like this one: Mustard Greens and Green Bean Stir Fry with Peanuts, Spicy Chicken Stir Fry

One year ago: Sweet and Tart Broccoli Salad

Broccoli and Chickpea Salad

As I mentioned before, the late summer jewels some people call tomatoes (and others call to-mah-tos) were delayed in this cool summer. Farmers are smart people, however, and those in charge of our CSA planted some more of the great cooler-weather crops for us to snack on while waiting. So, we’ve been enjoying an unusual, but welcome crop of lettuce heads and mixed salad greens (time to break out the salad dressing recipes again), radishes, and broccoli.

I was thinking I could make Sweet and Tart Broccoli Salad yet again, or maybe an old-stand-by stir fry, but I happened across another recipe for a different kind of broccoli salad that intrigued me. (With the amount of time I spend perusing recipes, the odds are actually in favor of me finding a new recipe with ingredients I have on hand just when I need one.) I changed a few things, and, admittedly, added a fancy step or two. I’m sure you could streamline this recipe if you wanted to. You’re good like that.

This recipe uses both broccoli florets and stems. Often, the stems are pretty tough and bitter on the outside, but that’s just hiding its crunchy deliciousness, which you really don’t want to waste. You could use a vegetable peeler on the stems, but I find them a bit rugged for that and go after them with a chef’s knife and a pretty heavy hand.





Usually, I don’t bother blanching broccoli for salads, preferring it just as it was born, but in this case, I like it less crunchy. The texture of the partially-cooked broccoli goes well with the tender chickpeas. I also thought crumbled rather than grated or shredded Parmesan cheese would complement those textures better. (And I think I was right!). And there’s still some nice contrasting crunch from the celery and onion.

To crumble the cheese, you’ll first need a block of it. Parmigiano-Reggiano really is best, and you may notice the difference it makes in this salad. It is also expensive, as you may know. I personally think it’s worth fitting into my budget, but use what you like. (Although I can’t say I recommend the stuff in the green can.) To crumble the cheese, I stab a chef’s knife into a spot near an edge, and sort of twist it. The texture of the cheese allows it to crumble off the block. You could chop it as well, but I like the rustic, irregular pieces.



Toasting and grinding whole mustard seeds and peppercorns just added a bit more flair to this salad. You could use dry mustard powder and ground pepper, but I did really like the way this salad tasted. Maybe it was my imagination, but the seasoning just seemed more fresh, less canned, subtle but high-quality. Of course, I haven’t tested it with mustard powder, so I could just be tasting my own high hopes. Anyway, since I’m back to eating broccoli, I’m happy to have this salad in my repertoire.

Broccoli and Chickpea Salad with Mustard-Pepper Dressing
based on a recipe in Soup Makes the Meal by Ken Haedrich (via The Best American Recipes 2002-2003)

6 ounces plain yogurt
1 large head of broccoli
salt
a large bowl of ice water
½ teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
½ teaspoon brown mustard seeds
½ teaspoon whole peppercorns
½ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
1 ½ tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon sherry or white wine vinegar
1 16-ounce can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
1 rib of celery, finely chopped
½ cup finely chopped red onion
¼ cup crumbled chunks Parmesan cheese (preferably Parmigiano-Reggiano)

1. Place the yogurt in a sieve lined with a paper towel or several layers of cheese cloth. Allow the yogurt to drain and thicken at least two hours. Refrigerate if draining longer. If you are using thick, Greek-style yogurt, you can skip this step. Scrape the drained yogurt into a large bowl.

2. Chop the broccoli into florets in bite-sized pieces. Peel and chop the stems. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a small handful of salt. Add the broccoli and cook for 3-4 minutes. The broccoli should be tender, but not mushy.

3. Remove the broccoli with a slotted spoon and plunge it directly into the ice water to stop the cooking. When the broccoli has cooled, drain and chill until needed.

4. Place the mustard seeds and peppercorns in a small skillet over medium-low heat. Toast them until fragrant, being very careful not to burn them. Set aside to cool. Finely grind the toasted spices in a spice grinder, coffee grinder, or blender.

5. Add the ground spices, mayonnaise, parsley, tarragon, Dijon mustard, and sherry vinegar to the yogurt. Stir well to combine. Add the chilled broccoli, draining off any remaining water. Add the chickpeas, celery, red onion and Parmesan. Stir well to combine.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Choppin' Broc-o-lay

A sure sign that you experienced 1980s popular culture is if you sing Dana Carvey's "Choppin' Broccoli" song from Saturday Night Live whenever you bring home a stalk of broccoli. I am so there! "My lady, she went down town....she bought some broccoli....she brought it hoooooome." Well, we got a lot of really, really nice broccoli in our CSA box this week, and I've been "choppin' broc-o-lay" to my heart's content.

Another broccoli-related blast from years ago is that salad that used to show up at all the pot-lucks and family dinners. It was made of broccoli florets, bacon and raisins drenched in a kind of sweet, creamy dressing that must have had mayonnaise in it. I never learned to make it, so I can't be sure, but I always loved it. Some years ago, I found a significantly lightened version with no mayonnaise, but all the best flavor elements of that original salad.

I've adapted that recipe, probably making it more caloric, but with only a teeny bit of mayonnaise. You'll hardly know it's there, but the dressing has a little more body to it than a vinaigrette. I also swapped out the raisins for dried cranberries, which we love around here. They make the salad less sweet and a little more perky and their chewiness contrasts with the crunchy broccoli. The smoky, salty bacon rounds out the cast. Everything is better with bacon. (Leave it out if you don't "do" bacon. The salad will still be great.)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a couple more broccoli recipes to try. I'm choppin' broc-o-lay, choppin' broc-o-lay...

Sweet and Tart Broccoli Salad
Adapted from Cooking Light magazine

2 slices bacon
1/4 cup chopped almonds
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
4 cups broccoli florets
¼ cup thinly-sliced red onion
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper


1. Cook bacon until crisp. Drain and cool. Crumble or chop.

2. Place the almonds in a small pan on medium-low heat. Shake the pan or stir frequently until the nuts are beginning to brown, 3-5 minutes (but watch carefully, since they can burn quickly). Remove from heat and cool

3. Combine vinegar, sugar, and mayonnaise in a large bowl. Whisk very well to blend completely.
4. Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and toss well to coat.

Makes about 4 servings