Thursday, July 05, 2018

Bacon Broccoli Cauliflower Salad With Cheese

Broccoli Cauliflower Salad

In my apartment building, every month there is a potluck dinner put on by the residents who live here. We have a residents' lounge which is a big room for parties, dinners, whatever you need it for. I was excited to go because I had just moved in the month before and hadn't met a lot of the other people who live here. Well it turned out to be really nice. We laughed most of the time and the food was incredible. I loved meeting everyone and I felt included in their resident circle immediately.

Bacon adds flavor!

When I started figuring out what to bring to the potluck dinner, I searched for a cold salad type of dish.  That would also have to be a low carb one. I remembered how much I had always loved those cold broccoli salads. So I found some recipes for it and found some that were Ketogenic ones. I didn't actually use any particular recipe to make it. I had other ideas. The one thing I needed to know was if I could use frozen broccoli in it because the fresh was pretty expensive in the store and the frozen would be so much easier too. I did not want it to be a soggy salad though.

Broccoli immersed in ice water

I found information online, not exactly a recipe, but instructions on how to cook frozen vegetables to add them to a cold dish, such as a salad, without becoming soggy. I cooked a bag of frozen broccoli in boiling water for about 2 minutes. Drain it from the hot water and immediately immerse it into cold ice water. Then drain it again. You can use fresh, this is not really a recipe, but just the way I did it.


Frozen cauliflower cooking for 2 minutes

I did the same thing with the frozen cauliflower, cook it, drained the hot water from it and then immersed it immediately into ice cold water. That stops the cooking process. I drained it again and while that was draining I chopped up an onion to add to it. Next I shredded about 8 ounces of Cheddar cheese. As I said, I had no recipe. I just put in whatever I thought would make it taste good. And it did! I heard someone saying, "This broccoli salad is really good!" A woman sitting near me said it was a completely different recipe than the one she makes. I was glad to hear that, as I hate doing anything the same as anyone else! I usually tweak my recipes to suit me and my taste or whoever I am cooking for.


Broccoli, cauliflower and onion mixed together.


Instead of making a dressing for it, I used ranch dressing. I think you can use whatever kind of salad dressing you have or want to make. I mixed it into the broccoli, cauliflower and onion real good. Then added the bacon, the shredded (I shredded it myself, as I do not think the ones that are bought that way have much taste to them) Cheddar cheese and more ranch dressing. I let it set in the refrigerator for about five hours till the dinner. It was cold when I took it out and mixed it up again and added more ranch dressing to it. It tasted really good.


Chillin'





Copyright © 2018 Kathleen G. Lupole All Photographs Copyright © 2018 Kathleen G. Lupole

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