I'm trying to expand my salad repertoire and this was a really good place to start. Broccoli is Hub's favorite veggie, and he really only likes it steamed.
You can only imagine how often we have steamed broccoli in this house. I was beginning to hate it. But tossed with tomato and fresh chives, and then doused with olive oil, dijon, and white wine vinegar and dressed up with salty bacon?
Oh, talk to me, baby.
So since my guys won't eat pork (including ham or bacon), I used turkey bacon. You don't need as much as called for in the recipe, because the slices are bigger. I'd just eyeball it if I were you. Otherwise, I followed everything to the letter.
Adapted from Jamie Oliver
2 large heads of broccoli
8 pieces of bacon, fried up and crumbled
3 tomatoes, seeded and finely sliced
bunch of chives (with flowers if you can get them), chopped (keep the flowers aside)
Dressing:
2 tsp dijon mustard
6 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and pepper
1/2 clove of garlic, peeled and finely grated
Cut up your broccoli into little florets. Don't waste the stalk, either! Cut off that woody end piece, then cut it in half lengthwise and slice it.
Put on a pot of water to boil because you need to blanch the broccoli.
Blanch: To cook in boiling water briefly and then drain, run broccoli under COLD water immediately to stop the cooking process. You want the broccoli to still be crunchy.
Blanch your broccoli for 30-60 seconds so it's still crunchy.
Lay some paper towel out on a cookie sheet and spread the drained broccoli on it to dry. Jamie had stated that this was a really important step, and he was right! I even changed the paper towel after a few minutes when the original sheets got pretty wet.
In a small bowl, whisk the dressing ingredients together. Set aside.
Toss the dried broccoli, tomato, and chives together. Douse with the dressing and toss. Add your bacon bits.
Serve!
Makes 6 servings
