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

Cooking Bacon In The Instant Pot

Bacon

I have been baking bacon in the oven for years now. That was the only way to cook bacon as far as I was concerned. It always came out flat and just the way I liked it. I used a large cookie sheet and even with the aluminum foil on it, sometimes the grease got underneath it and the whole pan would be greasy. One job I hated was cleaning that pan. It was a mess to clean, all that bacon grease. Many times the oven had to be cleaned also. When I moved here in May, to my own studio apartment, I did not want to go through that. So I did not buy bacon until just recently. I sure missed it.  Another thing is that using the big oven for four pieces of bacon is wasteful. So I decided to try something different.

Raw Cut Up Pieces of Bacon

My Instant Pot that I bought last year to use at my old house came to mind. Living there, I was unable to use it because the inverter was not able to handle it. But here, being on the grid power, I can use it. And use it, I do! The first thing I cooked in it here was spaghetti squash and it was the easiest way to cook it ever. But that is another blog post. What I am talking about here is one of my favorite foods to cook and that is bacon. Being on a Ketogenic food plan, bacon is a staple in my kitchen. Now if I could cook the bacon in the Instant Pot, that would be super fast, easy to clean and I could cook a lot of it at once (like the whole package!). Energy efficient also!

It started cooking quickly!

I could not find any recipes of how to do this with my Instant Pot. Just recipes that included cooked bacon or bacon diced and added to other ingredients. This is the way I did it and it didn't take very long. Matter of fact, it cut the time of baking down considerably. I cut the bacon up into squares and heated the Instant Pot on saute. Put the bacon pieces in and very quickly it started to sizzle. I moved it around a bit and just kept doing that while it cooked. Do not put the lid on or it will try to pressurize. Just let it cook a bit until you see it turning brown. Really move it around so all of it gets cooked.

Browning nicely!

When it is cooked the way you like it, some people like it softer and not so brown. Some like it crispy and very brown. As soon as it is done enough for you, turn the pot off. Right after that I take the insert pot out and let it sit a few minutes. Then I take the bacon out with a slotted spoon and set it on a paper towel to drain. What is nice about this is that you can cook the whole package and put the cooled, cooked bacon in a plastic storage bag and use it as you need it. I add it to scrambled eggs or an omelet for breakfast or use it in a salad or casserole for supper. Not having to cook it every time I need or want some makes it a convenience food!

All done!

I saw on my Instant Pot Facebook group that one person said her bacon did not come out crispy. Mine did! Very much so. Maybe she did not cut it up or she may have put the cover on. I cooked mine on the saute option and it cooked just like it cooks on a regular stove burner. The Instant Pot uses a lot less electric than the stove does and does the job a lot faster. I will be buying bacon pretty regular from now on. The insert pan was easy to empty the grease into my bacon grease jar that I keep in the refrigerator. I use bacon grease for cooking all the time. This will be the only way I cook my bacon from now on!

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

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No Mess Cooking Perfect Bacon

We eat bacon  a couple of times a week. Especially since I try to eat low carbs as much as possible. I don't like the mess or the grease to clean up.  I only use cast iron pans and they are heavy to clean, and even though I love them, I hated frying my bacon in them. Then I came across the blog, Inspirations by D: Bacon Tip. She gave me the tip on cooking the bacon like this:

Put aluminum foil over a cookie sheet and put the raw bacon neatly across it. Try not to let them touch or they will stick together. I know this! I had to make 12 slices, 4 for each of us, and mine did stick. But after it cooled off, I was able to separate the pieces easily.

My oven tends to run hot, so I set the oven at 350 degrees and let it cook. This bacon was really good, the thick kind. If you are using very thin bacon watch it closely. It cooks nice and easy and I imagine even with thin bacon it would cook fine.

It cooked in the oven and I checked it after about 20 minutes, then I turned them over. Not even 10 minutes later it was done. Nice straight pieces and everyone loved it.

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole, Updated 2018

All Photographs Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole