Mary Therese Biebel
Times Leader Test Kitchen
Here’s the Broccoli and Bacon Salad with the red onion, raisins and pistachios added, but before our I added a light topping of grated cheese.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
The ingredients for this Broccoli and Bacon Salad include the ones listed in the title, plus red onion, raisins and pistachios, with a dressing of Miracle Whip, vinegar and sugar whisked together.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
While the bacon was cooking I chopped the onion, shelled the pistachios and whisked together the ingredients for the dressing.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
“What are you doing?” my husband asked Thursday morning as I returned from the store with two heads of broccoli, a few other ingredients and — what really sparked his interest — a pound of bacon.
“Do you even know how to make bacon?” he asked, sounding incredulous.
Oh, please. Of course I know how to make bacon.
It’s true that if anyone in our household wants bacon as a dish unto itself, Mark would be the person pulling a frying pan out of the cupboard and reaching for the tongs.
But haven’t I cooked bacon lots of times? Well, certainly not every week. Or even every month. But surely once a year, at least, I must heat up a few strips, usually to crumble them over a potato salad or hot cabbage salad.
For my intended test kitchen dish, a Broccoli and Bacon Salad, the bacon would have a similar supporting role. Along with red onion, raisins and nuts, plus a dressing that combined Miracle Whip, vinegar and sugar, it would add a little interest to the broccoli.
The broccoli, of course, would be the star.
Now, if you really love those little green trees, as I do, maybe you’ll occasionally dip a raw floret into ranch dressing. Or flavor the cooked variety with a dab of butter or splash of lemon juice.
Otherwise, you’re probably just as happy to eat the little green sprigs completely unadorned.
But this week I thought it would be fun to practice making a broccoli dish for people who aren’t too fond of the green stuff. With sweet raisins, plus a sweet-and-sour dressing, you can tell them this salad practically turns broccoli into candy.
As I consulted old cookbooks as well as online recipes, I realized there are many varieties of this style of broccoli salad.
Some recipes specify raisins, others dried cranberries.
Some people use sunflowers, some use slivered almonds, some don’t mention nuts at all, and one suggested “nuts of your choice.”
Since I had pistachios in the cupboard that’s what it would be.
Another difference among the recipes was the amount of sugar to add to the dressing, with some calling for 1/4 cup, some more, and some less. I decided to go with 1/8 cup, which translates to 2 tablespoons.
So I washed the broccoli, shot a photo of my ingredients, and put the bacon into a pan on the stove and started to heat it.
Then I quickly broke the broccoli into florets (and turned the bacon), shelled the pistachios (and turned the bacon), chopped the onions (poured grease off the bacon and turned it again) and started to whisk together the dressing ingredients … when I noticed the bacon turning black.
“Oh, no,” I thought. “I burned the bacon.”
Fortunately, I had 8 more slices in the pack, so I started over again, this time giving the bacon my full attention, and using a nonstick pan, the kind my husband likes to use but from which I usually shy away.
This time, I cooked the bacon until it was crisp but not burnt, crumbled it, assembled the salad and tossed it with the dressing. I considered the dressing tangy and not too sweet, with its 2 tablespoons of sugar.
I figured this could be an ideal dish to contribute to a potluck supper, someday, maybe when the pandemic is really and truly over. And if anyone at that potluck supper claims to not like broccoli, this might make them change their minds.
Everyone in our household, for the record, likes broccoli.
And some of us really like bacon, too. Remember the blackened batch? Mark suddenly reappeared in the kitchen and said he didn’t think it was burnt so badly. The next thing I knew he had eaten most of it.
Broccoli and Bacon Salad
2 heads of broccoli, broken into bite-size florets
8 slices of bacon, cooked crisply and crumbled
1 red onion, chopped
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup nuts of your choice
1/2 cup Miracle Whip
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
Mix first five ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl whisk together Miracle Whip, sugar and vinegar until smooth. Toss the broccoli mixture with the dressing and refrigerate before serving. If desired, add grated cheese as a garnish.
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June 05, 2020 at 07:52AM
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Here’s a broccoli dish that almost tastes like candy - Wilkes Barre Times-Leader
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