Dislikes and Broccoli Salad

As a kid, I was always bewildered that broccoli was touted as a common scourge of children.  I despised most vegetables but loved broccoli.  I ate chicken with broccoli and rice for dinner for months. Not baked or broiled or fried chicken with a side of limp, overboiled broccoli, but the Chinese version with brown sauce: parboiled, oiled, glistening, crunchy broccoli with velvety, cornstarch-tenderized chicken. Ok, I don’t think of food in those terms then or now but I liked it. I thought it was the only way to eat broccoli. I was confused when I first encountered boiled broccoli and cheese sauce at a buffet: “Yay, broccoli! Cheese? But the nachos are at the other bar. Why is the cheese so far apart?” Worse was my first encounter with raw broccoli:

“Yeuch! It tastes like green!”

I love vegetables now but I still think broccoli is gross when raw. It tastes like green and overwhelms your taste receptors. Ironically, I was intrigued when I saw Oh She Glow’s Detox Salad involving raw broccoli: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/09/27/detox-salad/ (I do cook from many sources but she’s my current favorite).   I love chopping vegetables and this recipe involves a lot of chopping. I also figured the intense greenness, which I suppose some would call bitterness, of the raw broccoli would be ameliorated by its reduced size.

I chopped the vegetables into bite-sized pieces and then used the food processor. It’s a labor –intensive recipe but less so if you use a food processor.  I had no currants and only a scant cup of raisins.  Make sure to purchase enough raisins as the sugar in the raisins balances the cruciferous vegetables. This salad turned out fairly dry so I wished for extra lemons. However, the dryness likely prevents sogginess over the days it will take to eat this. The recipe claims to and does make about 10 cups.

I skipped the optional kelp, the salt (never use), the pepper (maybe later), and the maple syrup (I am trying to reduce my current astronomically high sugar intake). I may add in herbs de Provence, the spice blend I’m currently putting on everything, or paprika as the salad is missing something. 

This is not of my favorite things I've made, but it is probably the healthiest salad (no oils, no added sugars) and the healthiest vegan dish I’ve ever made. My forays into vegan cooking usually involve desserts (lots of oils and sugar/syrups) or creamy mains (lots of fatty nuts and oils). I like how this recipe makes raw broccoli palatable. I also like how this recipe reinforces my philosophy that everyone can eat anything; you just need to find the (healthy) way to prepare it for your taste buds.

What recipe changed your mind about something you used to dislike eating?

Keep on experimenting,

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