Green Veggie Dish

ctupdu wrote: »

Maybe a Broccoli Salad. The one I'm thinking of has broccoli, red onion, bacon, and raisins with a dressing on it.

This is the best salad! High calorie with the mayo/sugar/apple cider vinegar dressing (especially if you can't stick to one serving like me) but it's always a hit. I cut back on bacon but when I tried light mayonnaise it was pretty runny so I suggest not doing that.

brandi_84 wrote: »

I love broccoli. That might be something to try. Thanks.
@ctupdu What kind of dressing?

If it's cold where you are now (i.e., northern temperate zones or farther north), a fairly easy broccoli casserole that can be made ahead and heated before serving involves cooking about a pound and a quarter (20 oz.) of broccoli spears (I use frozen for this, but there's no reason you can't use fresh) by steaming or in shallow water. Drain the broccoli and arrange in a large rectangular casserole dish (I use a 15 x 9, but you've got a lot of leeway here) with the spears parallel to the short ends of the dish, with the floret tops of the spears alternating which long side of the dish they point to (this dish not only tastes good, it has a fair amount of presentation value).

Then make a white sauce (4 Tbsp. butter, 2 Tbsp. flour, 1/4 tsp salt, to form light roux then gradually add 1 and 1/2 cups milk). Bring to a boil while stirring, then add 6 oz. (1 and 1/2 cups) shredded cheddar cheese (I shred my own, but you can use pre-shredded). Reduce heat and stir until melted.* Remove from heat and add 1/4 cup of unsweetened cereal crumbs (I like corn flakes, but we have used Wheaties and Total over the years when that was what we had on hand) and about 12 oz. of canned whole kernel corn, drained (lately I've only been able to find 11 oz. cans, but they have a lot less liquid in them than from the days when this recipe was first published in a magazine, so I figure it comes out even).

Pour the cheddar-corn sauce down the middle of the casserole dish (i.e., you're going to end up covering most of the stalks but the florets should be bare). Combine 1/2 cup of unsweetened cereal crumbs (this is in addition to the 1/4 cup you put in the cheese sauce) with 2 Tbs melted butter and distribute it over the cheese sauce (think bread crumbs -- I find "spooning" with a fork works well for this).

Bake immediately at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes, or store in refrigerator without baking for up to one day, then bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. (In practice, I have found these times to be generous, and could probably shave 10 mins off of each.)



*Not-a-pro tip. I have once or twice substituted slightly thinned condensed canned cream of cheddar soup for the mornay sauce (white sauce + cheese = mornay sauce). I don't think it tastes as good, but it's still good. In the end, I didn't feel like the time saved was worth it, but YMMV.

Ratatouille!

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