Yearning for a creamy salad? Try one with broccoli, blue cheese
It’s the season of backyard barbecues, picnics and outdoor potlucks.
We gather with friends, or simply migrate to the backyard picnic table for family dinner, and that has me craving the classics: grilled meats, veggies and some creamy starchy sides like macaroni salad.
Creamy Broccoli and Blue Cheese Salad stretches just a smidgen of silky-and-satisfying mayonnaise with some low-fat Greek yogurt, and the resulting salad is creamy, but not cloying.
Blue cheese brings a sophisticated hit of flavour, and there is just enough to add complexity without being so overboard that kids won’t eat.
Feel free, however, to swap for a milder cheese like crumbled feta or even shredded sharp cheddar.
The bulk of the salad is brilliantly healthy raw vegetables: broccoli, thinly sliced cabbage and shredded carrots. Halved grapes add the perfect touch of sweetness that takes the salad almost to a slaw, and pairs perfectly with the tangy blue cheese, and red onion.
You can spend 10 minutes breaking down your own florets, chopping cabbage and grating carrots, or spend an extra dollar to buy them prepped in the produce aisle.
Either way, the salad takes minutes to make, and it holds up well for a couple of days in the fridge. Which means leftovers can be brown-bagged for lunch the next day no problem.
And, you can feel great about having a plethora of one of the most touted health foods out there: simple raw broccoli.
Creamy Broccoli and Blue Cheese Salad MAKES 6 SERVINGS
Salad: 4 cups small broccoli florets (raw) ½ small red onion, sliced thinly 1 cup shredded carrots 1 cup shredded red cabbage 1 cup red grapes, sliced in half ¼ cup blue cheese crumbles Dressing: ¼ cup low-fat plain Greek yogurt 2 tablespoon light mayonnaise 2 tbsp red wine vinegar 1 small garlic clove, finely minced or pressed, or 1 teaspoon granulated garlic ¼ tsp (or less or more) hot sauce ½ tsp kosher salt ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
Start to finish: 15 minutes Place all the salad ingredients into a large bowl.
In a small bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients and taste for seasoning. Pour the dressing onto the salad and toss.
Best if chilled for an hour before serving to allow flavours to marry.
Per serving: 93 calories (32 from fat); 4 grams fat (2 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 8 milligrams cholesterol; 335 mg sodium; 13 g carbohydrate; 3 g fibre; 7 g sugar; 5 g protein.