Broccoli Salad Recipe with Baked Vidalia Onion Dressing

Hola Amigos! Another installment of the Deli Salad Series here for your consideration. Today I'm sharing with you my version of a very pretty salad but to be honest, sometimes you can't have more than the first bite. Again Thank Goodness for those little samples!!! Broccoli Salad! The problem (at least to me for health reasons) uncooked broccoli, too dry, too soggy and the worstof them all....smells like broccoli..you know, that smell...can't even describe it, but if you've had them before, you know what I'm talking about.
In my version of this salad I quickly steamed and  blanched the broccoli and instead of mayo for dressing I used a sweet, creamy but light Baked Vidalia Onion Dressing, easy to make and in my humble opinion,  not as packed with calories and sugar as the ones sold on stores or even the ones you can find online since there is no oil and very little to no sugar at all. Here is the recipe

Broccoli Salad with Baked Vidalia Onion Dressing

1 Head of Broccoli

1 Medium Carrot, Shredded

1 Small Red Bell Pepper, chopped

1 Small Green Bell Pepper, chopped

1/2 Cup Craisins 

4 oz Prosciutto 

4 oz Smoked Gouda, shredded

2 oz Natural Almond Slivers 

a Large Bowl with Ice and Water

Wash your broccoli thoroughly with running cold water to get rid of any dirt or bugs. Break it into pieces that would fit into a steam pot. I season my steam water with salt,  garlic powder, lemon pepper and a slice of lemon. Steam for 5 minutes and quickly remove the broccoli from the heat and submerge it into a bowl of  iced water to stop the cooking. At this point the broccoli will be bright green but crunchy. Once they are cool, let them drain or pat dry with a kitchen towel and they will be perfect and ready for your salad.

In a large salad bowl add the broccoli, carrot, chopped bell peppers, craisins and prosciutto. Mix.

Add as much of the Baked Vidalia Onion Dressing as you wish, mix to coat all the vegetables. Top your salad with the shredded cheese and the slivered almonds.

Listo

Baked  Vidalia Onion Dressing

1 Large Vidalia Onion

1/2 Low Fat Buttermilk

1 tsps Balsmic Vinegar

1 1/2 tsps Mustard

1/4 tsps Celery Salt
a Pinch of Sugar (optional)

salt, pepper, cayanne pepper to taste

aluminum foil

Heat your oven at 450 degrees. Prepare your onion by peeling it and cutting both ends of it (to get rid of the little heads) Drizzle a little of olive oil if you want and wrap it tightly with heavy duty double aluminum foil.
Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool until is easy to handle.
Once it's cool enough place the onion and it's cooking juices trapped in the foil into a blender, add buttermilk vinegar, mustard and the rest of the seasonings, Blend on high until smooth. Adjust seasoning, if not sweet enough to your taste, add a little sugar until you are satisfied with the results.

Serve over salad.

The secret to the sweetness of this dressing is baking the onion to get the sugar in it to an almost point of caramel.

This Salad is a custom designs! The broccoli is cooked but crunchy, it's creamy with a natural touch of sweetness and sprinkled with little bites of saltines from the prosciutto.

And if this wasn't enough the Smoked Gouda and the almonds add a final note of deep flavor and texture!

I think I will stay away from the Salad Deli Counter for a while, I don't know why I never tried this before, but "Everything Under Heaven has it's Time"....this was mine.

Thank You so much for your visit today, I hope you are enjoying this series so far. 2 More to go...do you have a favorite you wish to try? Let me know...the more salads, the merrier! And remember friends, everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,
Lizy

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