Broccoli would have to be one of my favourite plants to grow as I’ve never been a fan of the tight rubbery heads we have available to us in the local stores. I personally love to eat broccoli raw and think its flavour is at its peak just as the tight florets begin to swell and separate as they get ready to set flower.
Broccoli is also one of the most productive plants from the Brassicaceae family you can grow as it will keep giving you a continuous harvest of small delectable side shoots for months after the main head has been harvested.
Brassica Salads
We have been making up brassica salads for quite a number of years and they’ve become side dish that is loved by all.
It’s a very versatile salad that can be made with cauliflower, kohlrabi, broccoli, as well as whatever you have on the grow in the patch.
In the salad below we used some flowering broccoli, cauliflower and a number of homegrown veggies straight from the patch.
Broccoli & Cauliflower Salad
Dressing
½ cup yoghurt.
¼ cup Mayonnaise.
1 heaped tsp of Dijon Mustard.
1 heaped tsp of honey.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Mix all dressing ingredients together adding salt and pepper to taste as you go.
Salad Ingredients
1 small head or ½ large head of broccoli chopped into smaller florets.
1 small head or ½ large head of cauliflower chopped into smaller florets.
Finley dice or slice the stem of the cauliflower and broccoli. You can also save some time by blitzing them briefly in the food processor.
½ large red capsicum/bell pepper, diced finely.
3 stalks of celery, sliced thinly.
Large handful of cherry tomatoes, whole or sliced in ½.
A handful of parsley, chopped finely.
½ doz green onion leaves sliced thinly.
1/8th cup pine nuts lightly toasted. We also like to use macadamia nuts as well.
A hand full of brassica flowers. Mustard greens flowers give the salad a nice little kick if you have them.
To make the salad mix,
Place all the salad ingredients except for the flowers in a large bowl.
Add the dressing and mix again.
Lightly toss through the flowers reserving a few for garnish if desired.
It is a very tasty salad that goes with many different main meals and as I mentioned above, can be made with almost any salad veggie you have on hand.
The leftovers from this dish were supposed to be lunch the following day but we decided that they would be better used as a side for that night’s dinner. It was bulked out using a few extra broccoli side shoots freshly picked from the patch. Hope you enjoy it if you give it a whirl.
This is an updated version of a post made to our old blog back in 2013.
Rob.
March 2019