Fun Food Friday- Broccoli Salad

Spring is finally upon us (although the last couple of days have felt more like summer than spring).  When I think of food during spring and summer I think of grilling and salads.  So I thought for this week's Fun Food Friday I'd do a broccoli salad.  Broccoli salad is great because it can be so versatile.  Instead of grapes you can use raisins (unless your husband is like mine and refuses to eat anything with "stinky raisins" as he calls then) or Craisins are good in it too.  I use cashews because that's my favorite nut to put in salads, but you can use almonds or sunflower seeds or whatever kind of nut you what.  It's a pretty but more importantly yummy side dish to anything off the grill.

 

Ingredients: Broccoli, Bacon, Grapes, Onion, Cashews, Mayonnaise, White Vinegar, Sugar 

You need 1/2 pound of cooked bacon.  I'm lazy and don't like to cook raw bacon and deal with the mess, so I buy pre-cooked bacon. :)  The first step is to cook the bacon, whatever kind of bacon you use. 

Cut up 2 heads of broccoli...

 

and place in a bowl

Cut up a red onion, I just used half the onion and it was plenty...

And add to the broccoli

Rinse some grapes...

and cut in half...

And add to the bowl

Crumble up the bacon and add to the bowl.

and finally, add some cashews

 

For the dressing combine 1 cup mayonnaise...

1/2 cup of sugar...

and 2 Tablespoons of white vinegar...

And stir (carefully so the vinegar doesn't fly out of the bowl) until combined and smooth 

Pour the dressing over the salad...

And stir until everything is mixed and covered with dressing

Chill in the refrigerator of at least an hour.  I like to originally just pour about 2/3 of the dressing and then right before serving add the rest of it.

Such a pretty salad.  But more importantly, a very yummy salad. :)

 

 

Broccoli Salad

2 heads of fresh broccoli

1/2 a red onion, diced

1/2 pound of bacon, cooked and crumbled

3/4 cup grapes, halved

3/4 cup cashews

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup white sugar

2 Tablespoons white vinegar

 

Cut the broccoli into bite-size pieces.  To a bowl add the broccoli, onion, bacon, grapes and cashews. For dressing mix the mayonnaise, sugar and vinegar together until smooth.  Stir into the salad and let chill for at least 1 hour.