Creamy broccoli salad has a blue cheese tang
Now is 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, vegetables and some creamy starchy sides like macaroni salad. Today, I have the perfect solution for scratching the creamy- side- salad itch while actually getting in some seriously healthful raw vegetables. Win- win.
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 nice sophisticated hit of flavor, and there is just enough to add complexity without being so overboard that the kids won’t eat it. Well, most anyway. One of my four kiddos deemed this salad “too blue cheesy” for her palate, but I claim 75 percent as a victory here. Because a little blue cheese goes a long way, you get a lot of flavor for your cheese calorie, but feel free to swap for a milder cheese like crumbled feta or even shredded sharp cheddar.
The bulk of the salad, though, is brilliantly healthful 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 florets, chopping cabbage and grating carrots, or spend an extra dollar to buy them prepped in a bag 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.
Creamy Broccoli and Blue Cheese Salad
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- style yogurt 2 tablespoon light mayonnaise 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 1 small garlic clove, finely minced or pressed OR 1 teaspoon granulated garlic ¼ teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste ½ teaspoon kosher salt ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
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 flavors to marry. Makes 6 servings. Nutrition information: Each serving contains approximately 100 calories, 5 g protein, 4 g fat, 13 g carbohydrate ( 5 g sugar), 8 mg cholesterol, 335 mg sodium and 3 g fiber.
Carbohydrate choices: 1.