Too Hot To Cook Broccoli Salad

July 2, 2018

There are two significant things taking place on the mountaintop this summer

First of all, it is so hot! Good grief, I thought we left behind the extreme heat and humidity in South Carolina! The cool mountain breezes we so often enjoy have become rather scarce lately. The wind chimes aren’t making a peep now! One thing we have noticed, at this higher elevation, the sun is extremely intense. The heat came earlier this year and is hanging around more than I like. Hopefully, that means our cool mountain breeze will be back by August, but we’ll see.

The second noticeable feature at this time of year is the blooming rhododendron.

One of my favorite things about our mountain life is the built-in landscape. Our woods and mountains are filled with mountain laurel and rhododendron. I love them and they are both equally beautiful! The laurel bloomed for weeks and faded. Now, it’s the rhododendron’s turn with its striking green leaves and soft, lovely white to pale pink blooms.

How great is it to have built-in landscape that you do absolutely nothing to but just enjoy! It really makes a very nice backdrop shooting pics for this recipe.

Hot and humid weather

With all this hot, humid weather, the last thing I really want to do is stand over a very hot outdoor cook stove! Because they are Ambitious Feller’s favorite, this past Sunday I decided to make our gluten-free pancakes for breakfast. I knew when I stepped outside things were going to be difficult. Let me tell you, it was misery making them. You know, love sometimes transcends our personal comfort!! For those of us without an official kitchen and preparing meals outside, we are always at the mercy of the weather. I was in total meltdown by the time the last pancake was flipped. I know, I should have just made a smoothie!

Well, with lunch not far behind, I knew there was no way I was going back outside to prepare anything that involved heat. Fortunately, I had some fresh broccoli florets and decided to make a healthy, light, cool lunch for us.

Broccoli salad ingredients

When it comes to making broccoli salad, I just do it free-style. I really don’t measure anything and just eye it and taste to get it to where I want it. It’s the perfect dish to make on a hot day when you don’t won’t to heat up the house any more or if you are cooking outside on a cook stove.

For me, my broccoli salad recipe changes depending on what ingredients I have on hand. Today’s list was just a few basic favorites with one secret ingredient that I have never used before making this dish.

I started out with washed, fresh broccoli florets. Our grocery store sells them in heads which I love. It’s just me, but I really don’t care for broccoli stems. For the prepping, I bought 4 small heads of broccoli florets that I chopped up and added 1/4 red onion, a handful of pumpkin seeds, a handful of pecans and coarse sea salt. I mixed this all together in a bowl before making the dressing. Again, you can make a large batch if you like and just use more of the ingredients above. Don’t be afraid, just scoop up your ingredients and toss them together.

The dressing

The best part of a broccoli salad is the dressing. I generally lean more towards a sweet dressing than savory. Again, it’s your personal preference. Once again, I look at the amount of broccoli I have and mix up enough dressing to adequately coat the broccoli. You really can’t mess this recipe up if you just do a taste test first.

The dressing ingredients are basic and simple. For the base, you can choose mayo, Greek yogurt or a Veganaise mayo. Our small-town grocery store doesn’t carry Veganaise, so I opted for a light mayo instead. If you like Duke’s or Hellman’s, go for it! We are not the food police around here. To the mayo (3-4 large soup spoons), I added a splash of Bragg’s apple cider vinegar, honey and Agave for the sweet and then for my secret ingredient. . . red pepper flakes. . . just a few sprinkles though! That one extra ingredient just took this simple salad over the top! I loved the spice with the sweet and will add it from now on when I make this!

One thing to remember

Taste your dressing and adjust accordingly before adding to your broccoli mixture. It’s so much easier to make the adjustment to the dressing alone if needed. At that point, if the taste is where you want it, pour over your broccoli and mix it well together. You can go ahead and dig in right away, but I like to pop it in the fridge and let the flavors combine a bit.

The best part, the only heat from this dish was the red pepper flakes I added! So yummy and delicious and perfect for these hot summer days. Go ahead, give your stove a break. It’s just too hot to cook any way.