Broccoli Salad

This broccoli salad recipe I first ate in France. It has fresh clean flavours unlike the creamy versions I’ve tried elsewhere. Even the kids liked the ‘tree’ salad, as long as there was a hunk of meat alongside!

The key to this salad is in the cooking of the broccoli. Personally I like the broccoli head to be cooked through with a bit of crunch still in the steam. Try it this way, or cook it all the way through- but please don’t boil the living daylights out of the poor broccoli!

serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 cups of broccoli (cut the flowerettes into eatable pieces with a decent amount of steam left on)
½ purple onion or 2 shallots
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions

Cook the broccoli pieces till they are to your liking. I steam mine so I can judge the exact time when the head is cooked but the steam still has some crunch- about 5 mins. I then dunk the steaming saucepan straight into cold water to stop the cooking process.

Put the broccoli in a bowl and allow it to cool right down (you can put it in the fridge).

Once the broccoli is cool, dice the onion or shallot finely and add to the bowl.

Season with salt and pepper, and dress with 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 table spoons of Balsamic vinegar.

Variations: add some peanuts or sunflower seed for crunch