Maus and I have decided we don’t like frozen broccoli which is a bit of a problem because there are several bags of it in the freezer – Oh well, more dog food. 🙂

As a consequence, when I picked two huge broccoli heads last week, I was determined to find a use for it.  We made penne with broccoli and chorizo which lasted us two nights and then I found this salad.  It is from a great little ABC publication I use more than I thought I would, Homecooked Favourite Recipes from Australian Kitchens.   It was out and about because I was making one of my favourite biscuit recipes, gingernuts, from it.  I started flicking through its pages (as you do) and came across this recipe.

The combination of broccoli, pinenuts, bacon and raisins is a classic that works wonders with pasta, so why not as a salad?  ‘Why not indeed?’, I thought.  Dinner was set.

The recipe was contributed by Lisa Harris from Aspley, Queensland.  I altered the salad ingredients to serve two.

The dressing may need a bit of adjusting to suit your taste.  The original recipe used only 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar but I am not a great fan of mayonnaise so I used more to dilute it.  Also, Maus found the dressing a bit sweet, therefore, taste it before you put the sugar in.  You may find you don’t need any, or only a portion of what is called for.  There was a bit of dressing left over so if you decide to increase the salad ingredients, you can keep the quantity of dressing the same.

Salad:

• 350g broccoli, cut into florets
• 4 bacon rashers, cut into 1 cm pieces
• 1 small (or half medium) onion, red or white
• ¼ cup raisins
• 50g toasted pine nuts.  To toast, put the pine nuts in a dry pan over a medium to low heat, stirring all the while.  Remove from the heat when they begin to colour.

Dressing:

• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 2 tbs* caster sugar**
• 3 tbs* apple cider vinegar**
• ¼ tsp pepper

*These are 20 mil tablespoons.

**See above.

Method:

1. Briefly steam the broccoli until just tender.  Set aside to cool.
2. Sauté the bacon in a frying pan until crisp.  Set aside to cool.
3. Whisk together the dressing ingredients.  As per note above, adjust to suit your taste.
4. In a large bowl, toss the onion, raisins, broccoli and bacon.
5. Pour dressing over and toss again.
6. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
7. Just before serving, sprinkle toasted pine nuts over salad.