Salads

Cauliflower Broccoli Salad with Apricots

Different fruit for an old salad.

I think we have all made some type of broccoli salad over the years. I know I use to make one that had peanuts and raisins but I decided to change my broccoli salad up a little.

If there’s a veggie tray out at a party, that bushy green stuff will still be sitting there when I’m done with it. I have to say broccoli is one of my least favorite raw vegetables. I always use to love a broccoli casserole recipe a friend gave me back in the 70’s, but that was one of those casseroles loaded with soup and garlic cheese roll (can’t find that any more). I guess it’s ok if it is drenched in cheese sauce but then how good is that for you.

So, I’m left with this big bag of broccoli that I had bought at Sam’s Club for some unknown reason. One would think I was ready to be invaded with hordes of people for a weekend of fun and sun around the pool. As It turned out I made this salad twice over Labor Day weekend.

The old version of this salad was good and still is but I wanted to try the additional of apricots instead of the raisins and when my bag of apricots didn’t look anywhere nearly big enough to go with that bag of broccoli, I added some dried chopped figs to the mix.  Fried bacon never hurt any recipe and toasting the sunflower seeds even though they are already roasted just made them better.

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Chop Broccoli in small pieces.

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Break the cauliflower into florets and slice thin. Toast your sunflower seeds either in a skillet or microwave and chop up the apricots. (I also added about 1/3 cup chopped dried figs.)

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I didn’t think the small bag of apricots would be enough so I added some chopped figs I had on hand.

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Sorry about the blurred picture but you get the idea. After mixing up the dressing pour over salad and toss until coated.

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Cauliflower Broccoli Salad with Apricots

Ingredients

  • 1 bunch broccoli cut into small florets
  • 1 head cauliflower cut into florets then sliced
  • 1 bunch green onions
  • 2 c. cheddar cheese
  • 1 lb.bacon fried crisp and crumbled, save drippings
  • 1/3 c. toasted pine nuts or sunflower seeds
  • 1-6 oz. pkg. chopped dried apricots
  • 4 dried figs sliced thin
  • 8-10 radishes sliced thin, optional
  • Dressing:
  • 1/2 c. sugar or Splenda I used a little less than 1/2 cup
  • 1 c. mayonnaise
  • 1 Tbsp. cider vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
  • 1 -2 Tbsp. reserved bacon fat

Instructions

  1. Cut the broccoli into small florets. Do the same with the cauliflower but then slice into thin slices. Put the broccoli, cauliflower, green onions,  bacon, apricots, figs, nuts and radishes if you are using them. Toss lightly to mix together.
  2. For the dressing mix the mayonnaise, cider and red wine vinegars and the bacon fat. Stir in the sugar or Splenda until thoroughly blended. Add the dressing to the salad ingredients and mix until everything is coated.  (I would wait until about an hour before serving to add the dressing.)

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