broccoli

Fall Vegetable Salad with Dill Vinaigrette

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Last week I had lunch with a good friend at a place called Local Foods in Houston.  They have 2 locations now and we visited the newer one on Kirby for the first time.  This location has more seating and boasts a lovely outdoor space.  The weather cooperated perfectly making for a lunch I’d gladly repeat every day if I could.  We split a pork sandwich and their fall harvest salad.  The salad was so delicious that I knew I’d be trying to recreate it at home.

Fall Vegetable Salad with Dill Vinaigrette | Hottie Biscotti

While I am sure there was more in this salad that I couldn’t quite pinpoint or remember when I made a grocery list, I knew that is had broccoli, cauliflower, roasted brussels sprouts, pomegranate seeds, sunflower seeds and goat cheese.  We chose to add chicken to ours at the restaurant, but it would’ve been just as incredible without it.  You could leave out the chicken for a vegetarian salad or if you’re serving this as a side salad, or add it if you’re serving as a main course.

Fall Vegetable Salad with Dill Vinaigrette | Hottie Biscotti

One of my favorite parts about this salad was the dressing.  Again, I know mine isn’t the same as Local Foods, but the dill in the dressing stood out to me and really brought out all the delicious flavors of the salad.  So I made a dill vinaigrette to dress this salad.  And it’s pretty special.  I’ll be making it again.

Make sure to use fresh dill and parsley in the dressing and chop them very fine.  As with all homemade salad dressings, you can adjust the flavors to your liking.  Add more or less honey (I found this to be on the sweet side) add more salt, some cracked pepper, or more garlic if you’d like.  Shaking dressing up in a small mason jar is an easy way to make and store the dressing.

Dill Vinaigrette | Hottie Biscotti Dill Vinaigrette | Hottie Biscotti

The amounts below are enough for 2 to 4 salads, depending on how big you make them and who’s eating.  After prepping all the vegetables they can be refrigerated for use later on, so you can easily enjoy this salad for lunches during the week by simply tossing the ingredients together when you’re ready.

Fall Vegetable Salad with Dill Vinaigrette | Hottie Biscotti Fall Vegetable Salad with Dill Vinaigrette | Hottie Biscotti

Salads at our house are almost always greens, carrots, celery, tomatoes, dried cranberries and nuts if I have them around.  I love that this salad has so much stuff in it that I’ve never thought of putting in to a salad!  It’s delicious.  You can make it for one or for a large group.  And it’s a great fall salad with the roasted brussels and sweet pops from the pomegranate seeds.  And of course there is goat cheese.  Thank God for goat cheese!  I hope you try this salad.

Fall Vegetable Salad with Dill Vinaigrette | Hottie Biscotti

Fall Vegetable Salad with Dill Vinaigrette

Inspired by Fall Harvest Salad from Local Foods

Ingredients

For the Salad

  • Spring mix
  • 3/4 cup broccoli florets
  • 3/4 cup cauliflower florets
  • 8-10 brussels sprouts, ends trimmed, outer leaves removed and cut into quarters
  • pomegranate seeds
  • roasted, salted sunflower seeds
  • 2 ounces plain goat cheese
  • cooked chicken (optional)

For the Dill Vinaigrette

  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped dill
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
  • 2-3 teaspoons honey
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
  • 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
  • pinch of salt

Directions

For dressing

  1. Shake all ingredients together in a jar or whisk together in a bowl.  Set aside or store in the fridge.

For Salad

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.  Toss brussels in a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  Roast, shaking the pan once or twice, for 20 minutes until brussels sprouts are tender and browned.  Set aside to cool.
  2. Bring a pot of water to a boil and prepare a large bowl of ice water.  Boil broccoli and cauliflower for 2 minutes, then drain and put vegetables in the ice water, swish around a few times, then remove from the water to drain.
  3. Prepare the salad by either tossing salad greens, broccoli and cauliflower, brussels sprouts in a large bowl with your desired amount of dressing, then plating and topping with pomegranate seeds, sunflower seeds and goat cheese OR plate everything together and drizzle on the dressing.

Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower

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Roasted vegetables are fall perfection.  Anytime of the year perfection for me, really.  But fall and winter seem to be better for the rich and warm flavors and the delicious caramelization of the veggies that takes place in the oven.  One of my favorite things about them is their versatility.  You can use your favorite vegetables.  My favorite combination includes brussels sprouts, sweet potato, onion and cauliflower.  I can’t think of a better side dish, can you?  If you’re still planning your Thanksgiving menu, consider roasting a big tray of vegetables.  You can do all of your prep, including tossing with the oil and salt, the night before.  Refrigerate and roast right before dinner.

After starting this lovely dish in the crock pot I started thinking about what we would eat with it.  I decided on brown rice and salad.  But then I remembered that we had broccoli and cauliflower already cut up and just waiting to be transformed into something magical.  I was honestly pretty worried about roasting the broccoli with my normal method.  I’ve done it before and felt like the ends got too blackened and crunchy, even for me.  So I looked up a recipe for roasted broccoli and found this from Ellie Krieger.  As luck would have it, this particular recipe uses broccoli and cauliflower.  Perfect.

We loved these.  I ate the remainder of them for lunch the next day straight from the fridge.  One of the reasons they were so good is the garlic.  I smashed whole cloves and mixed them in with the vegetables.  If you cut the garlic too small, it burns.  I learned that lesson the hard way!  The garlic mellows enough through the cooking process to not be an unwelcome addition to your bite.  Cooking the vegetables covered allows them to steam before roasting, which keeps the broccoli from burning on the tips and cooking unevenly.  I will probably try this method with my normal line up of vegetables the next time I roast them.  However, I think you could get by with less covered steam cooking, maybe 20 minutes covered and 30-40 uncovered?  I’ll mess with that and see how it goes.

Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower

From Ellie Krieger

Ingredients

  • 1 small head cauliflower (2 pounds), cut into florets
  • 2 large stalks broccoli (1 pound), cut into florets
  • 1 head garlic, broken into cloves, peeled and smashed but still intact
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  2. Place cauliflower and broccoli into a 9 by 13 inch baking dish, toss with the olive oil, and sprinkle with salt.
  3. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 1/2 hour.
  4. Remove the foil, stir and cook for 30 to 40 minutes more, until vegetables are tender and nicely browned, stirring occasionally.

Spicy Asian Roasted Broccoli & Snap Peas

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My plan for dinner was a ginger sesame marinated pork tenderloin, basmati rice and steamed broccoli.  Isn’t that awfully easy…and awfully boring?  I found this recipe for roasted broccoli and snap peas made extra delicious with a light sauce of sesame oil, orange zest, cilantro, honey, fresh ginger, garlic and sambal oelek.  So glad I took the extra time to make this side dish.

Living where we do there are limitations on the ingredients I can get my hands on.  I couldn’t find bird chiles, so I didn’t use them and as a result this wasn’t too spicy even with the sambal oelek.  If you really have a problem with spice, then you can leave that out as well.  I also didn’t use the miso, mostly because I was too lazy to look for it!  Since it’s just Ben and I eating dinner, I also like to make just enough for the two of us unless it’s something I know is wonderful left over.  So I changed parts of this recipe to better suit our lifestyle.  Here is the link to the original recipe.

There is something so very special about roasted veggies, and this recipe is no exception.  This is a perfect side for an Asian flavored meal.  Enjoy!

Spicy Asian Roasted Broccoli & Snap Peas

Adapted from finecooking.com

Ingredients

  • 2 heads of broccoli, cut into florets
  • 8 ounces snap peas (1 bag)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil, divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 teaspoon sambal oelek
  • 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
  • 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F
  2. Combine broccoli and snap peas in a 9×13 glass dish and drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon sesame oil over vegetables, toss together to coat and sprinkle with salt.
  3. Roast for 20 minutes, checking and stirring about half way through.  Vegetable are done when slightly browned.
  4. While vegetable are cooking whisk the rest of the ingredients together.
  5. When vegetables are done pour sauce over and toss to coat.