meet our new summer salad: broccoli slaw

Now, I know these are nothing new but I've never made a "slaw" in my life. And definitely not a broccoli one. I've had them on occasion though and I've always enjoyed them, unlike the more traditional slaw. I'm not a fan of mayonnaise so maybe that's why cole slaw has never been my thing. But for some reason, I can handle a bit of mayo in this salad. I think all the added dressing ingredients help. Plus, maybe my taste buds are growing up a bit..? Still, no cole slaw for me, thank you very much!

Christian helped me make this for a barbecue and I couldn't stop him from dipping his fingers into the bowl and stealing bites and licks. I brought the leftovers home thinking they'd be fabulous for Sunday dinner and Shane ended up devouring most of it before Sunday ever came. So -- there you go, healthy, iron-packed and delicious -- what more do you need? We'll definitely be making this again soon.

P.S. Instead of buttermilk I cheated and used the milk+vinegar trick.

Thank you, Smitten Kitchen!

Broccoli Slaw:
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

Buttermilk Dressing:
1/2 cup buttermilk, well-shaken
1/3 cup mayonnaise (this is more than is in the original, to thicken the dressing further)
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 hand 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...

Variation: Try with cauliflower and use dried currants instead of cranberries, walnuts instead of almonds, and maybe even some celery slices throw in. Have fun with it.