Broccoli Salad Basics

Broccoli salad is a very versatile dish that can be done in an endless variety of ways. Here is an overview of the most popular ingredients and dressings.

1. Ingredients:

The first ingredient is of course fresh broccoli. 2 heads will do for an average size salad. Chop the stalks and cut the flow be in bite sized pieces.

Next add some chopped vegetables. The favorites are onion, celery, carrots and cauliflower. Just add as much as you want until it looks like a good mix.

Some people like to add bacon. Fry up 6-8 strips until crisp, drain grease and set aside. Crumble bacon after it cooled and added to salad just before serving.

Any cheese can be. This can be cubed, crumbled, shredded, or creamy as part of a dressing.

Fruit is often added to these salads, usually raisins. Also popular are grapes, cranberries, diced apple, mandarin orange pieces, or any dried fruit.

Adding sunflower seeds or nuts to the mixture gives the salad some extra crunch. Almonds, walnuts, cashew nuts and hazelnuts are good examples. Please try not to chop the nuts too small. Keep larger pieces helps the flavor of nuts stand out a bit. Roasting the nuts with a little spice is a possibility too.

If you'd rather not chop up some fruit or nuts just add some trail mix for a salad instead.

2 Dressing:

a. The standard dressing for this salad is a basic mayonnaise / vinegar / sugar mixture:

1 cup mayonnaise1 / 4 cup vinegar1 / 4 cup sugar

* Mayonnaise can be mixed with yogurt to lighten it up .* Flavoured vinegar can be used or substituted with lemon or lime juice .* artificial sweetener can be used instead of sugar.

b. An oil / vinegar dressing can also be used:

1 / 2 cup salad oil1 / 4 cup vinegar1 / 4 cup sugar (optional) 1 / 2 tsp. salt 

* Flavourings cider or wine vinegar is recommended .* Spices such as celery seed, onion powder, basil and oregano can be added. 

c. Your favorite bottled dressing can be. Any or creamy Italian dressing style will work fine on a broccoli salad. A good one to try is the 3-cheese ranch.

3-several things:

Here are a few points that could be added to make your salad something original:

* All canned vegetable such as peas, corn or beans (black, kidney, garbanzo, rose, etc.) .* Fresh vegetables such as mushrooms, chives, bean sprouts, green beans, cucumber and pepper .* Seafood can make it interesting: shrimp, scallops , salmon and calamari are good additions.

4 -Method:

* Add broccoli flow corrected and other ingredients that you use for your salad bowl. If you use the crumbled bacon or bacon bits add them just before serving .* Add your dressing, mix and refrigerate 2-4 hours or overnight .* Pipes salad again before serving.