Do you ever crave foods that you normally don't eat?  A couple weeks ago I really, really wanted some broccoli.  I like broccoli fine, but don't usually seek it out.  So, with Aldi's wonderfully low prices on produce, I bought some broccoli and went to work making this slaw dish.  It's not only on smittenkitchen.com, it's also in her cookbook. 

This is an easy dish that is a great make-ahead, and I ate it at least 2-3 days for my entire lunch.  It stays with you a little while.  I like that.  So, I recommend this recipe.  See notes for suggested changes/ a warning.



Broccoli Slaw
from Deb at smittenkitchen.com 

Makes about six cups of slaw
2 heads of broccoli
1/2 cup thinly sliced almonds, toasted
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup buttermilk, well-shaken
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot (or, you could just use a little extra red onion to simplify it)

Trim broccoli and cut it into large chunks. From here, you can either feed it through your food processor’s slicing blade, use a mandoline to cut it into thin slices, or simply had chop it into smaller pieces. I used the stem and the flowerets, but if you have a broccoli stem aversion you can just use the tops.

Toss the sliced broccoli with the almonds, cranberries and red onion in a large bowl. Meanwhile, whisk the dressing ingredients in a smaller one, with a good pinch of salt and black pepper. Pour the dressing over the broccoli (if you’ve skipped the stems, you might not want it all; I otherwise found this to be the perfect amount) and toss it well. Season well with salt and pepper to taste.

Should keep up to a week in the fridge.

Notes

• My warning- I made this dish in February, which means that fresh onions are not happening right now.  Onions are "hotter" or stronger in winter, so the onion I used was kicking.  You can avoid this by doing one of the following:
• Use shallots for the whole thing- they have a milder flavor
• After chopping your onion, place in a strainer and rinse and allow to drain for a few minutes