
A while back,
Mr. Hawthorne and I tried a new restaurant -
The Firefly.
One of the dishes I took a liking to
was the broccoli salad.
From their menu description:
Broccoli, dried cranberries,
candied nut pieces
tossed in a sweet onion dressing.
Sounds simple enough for me to recreate.

First I'm starting on the nuts.
Combination of both pecans and walnuts.

About 2 cups pecans and walnuts.
My spices:
thyme
cayenne
Cajun seasoning
granulated garlic
oregano
cumin
onion powder
maybe 1/2 cup brown sugar

About a teaspoon each Cajun seasoning and dried thyme.

And a teaspoon of oregano and onion powder.

Why not a teaspoon of cumin?

Little bit of garlic powder and cayenne.

Action shots!

Add sugar and enough water to just cover.

I decided to add in another 1/4 cup brown sugar.

I cooked this over medium heat
for about thirty minutes.

Then I spread the nuts in a single layer in my baking sheet
and sprinkled a little more sugar over top
and added some pats of butter.
Bake in low oven- about 300 degrees,
stirring occasionally,
until nuts are nice and toasty.
About 20 minutes.
While the nuts were toasting,
I started on my broccoli.
One head of broccoli,
trimmed and peeled.
One big handful of cranberries.

I steamed my broccoli for about a minute,
then immediately plunged it into a prepared ice-water bath.

The ice water stops the cooking and
sets the pretty bright green color.

After draining my just-tender broccoli,
I added in some chopped red onion.

... and the dried cranberries.

Now for a sweet onion dressing:
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/2 sweet onion, grated
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 cup vegetable oil
salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan.

Heat until sugar dissolves.

Why not add in about a tablespoon of poppy seeds?

Keep stirring.
Dressing can be served warm or refrigerated.

Add cooled nuts into broccoli salad.

Pour in sweet onion dressing
and enjoy.

I love cool, refreshing summer salads like this.
I enjoy the crisp-tender bite into the broccoli.
I like the crunch of the nuts contrasting
with the
smoothness and toothiness of the cranberry.
You have sweet.
There's a bit of tart.
And there's some heat in there.
Thanks for the idea, Firefly!
Ooh, thanks for the idea for the dressing, Rosie. I do have a garden walk picnic pitch-in (potluck dinner) this weekend and I needed a good salad dressing that could stand the heat.
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