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Recipe for broccoli salad
Salad of broccoli, fennel, artichoke hearts and pimento pepers
You can use this recipe for broccoli salad to make a plain vegetable salad, or you can toss in a few cups of a medium-sized pasta such as rotini, cart wheels, or gemelli if you want to make a whole meal of it.
Fennel bulb is sometimes hard to come by but well worth the effort. If you have kids and they like licorice, they'll warm to fennel bulb fairly quickly if you tell them it tastes like licorice - it does! My kids usually eat most of the chopped fennel before I even get it into the salad!
The broccoli in this recipe for broccoli salad is cut finely and although not cooked, it does get slightly warmed when you toss it in with the warm pasta. This is just enough to give it that beautiful bright green glow of blanched broccoli. If you make this recipe for broccoli salad without the pasta, you may want to blanch the broccoli for just about ten seconds, then cool it quickly.
If you can't find sweet pimento peppers, use any sweet red pepper in this recipe for broccoli salad. Don't accidentally use hot pimento peppers unless you like the heat! The flesh of the pimento is supposed to be more aromatic than that of the red bell pepper. I didn't notice it tasting or smelling different but it is a thicker flesh and it's always fun to try new vegetables!
Ingredients
1 bulb fennel
1 large bunch broccoli
5 small red pimientos
1 clove garlic
6 sprigs parsley
1 lemon
1 small jar artichoke hearts
3 Tbsp + 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 lb medium-small pasta (optional - rotini, penne, cart wheels, gemelli, macaroni)
Directions
1. If making a broccoli pasta salad, cook the pasta (or at least start the water boiling, while working on the remaining steps). Just be careful not to overcook the pasta.
2. Cut around the base of the fennel bulb to loosen individual pieces of the stalk. Cut away any green woody stem parts and any hard areas on the bottom of each piece. Slice with the grain into juliennes about 1/2 inch wide, then cross cut into pieces 1/2 to 3/4 inch long. Add to salad bowl.
3. Core and seed the red peppers, and dice into 1/2 by 1/2 inch pieces. Add to bowl.
4. Cut the broccoli into small, bite-sized flowerets. Add to bowl.
5. Drain the jar of artichoke hearts. Chop the artichoke into 1/2 inch cubes. Add to bowl.
6. If making a pasta salad, mince the clove of garlic, and place in a small saucepan with the 3 Tbsp olive oil. Set flame on simmer and sweat the garlic. Remove from the heat as soon as the garlic starts to sizzle lightly. When the pasta has cooked and has been drained, strain the garlic-flavored oil through a small sieve into the pasta, and toss to keep it from sticking together. The garlic imparts a pleasant but not overly strong cooked garlic flavor to the salad.
7. Mince the parsley. Cut away two sections of the outer rind of the lemon, and remove the inner white backing to those pieces, then cut into tiny slivers. Set parsley and lemon rind aside.
8. Squeeze the lemon to make aout 3/8 cup of lemon juice. Add to a small bowl or 2 cup measuring cup.
9. Add the vinegar and 1/2 cup of olive oil to the dressing container. Mix ingredients. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Stir, then add to the salad.
10. (For pasta salad) Toss the pasta into the salad mixture.
11. Sprinkle the lemon rind slivers and minced parsley on top as a garnish. Stir again to mix these in, just before serving.
We made this recipe for broccoli salad with the pasta in it, and our kids gobbled up the broccoli like it was candy - it helps that they were out scootering and running about the neighborhood all afternoon.
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