Broccoli Salad

This is a creature I had not encountered before moving to the Midwest.  I am not going to engage in culinary anthropology and draw the sweeping conclusion that this is therefore a Midwestern dish (as my lack of exposure may derive merely from a vegetable-deficient upbringing rather than geographical particulars), though there is clearly a link between the Midwest love of mayonnaise-covered fruit and most broccoli salad recipes.

I have discovered a superior dressing recipe (originally for pasta salad, thanks again Cooking Light!) that is ideally suited to a vegetable salad such as this.  It doesn't break (as many a typical mayo-and-vinegar broccoli salad dressing does), but stays creamy even when made a full day in advance.  It also employs buttermilk which significantly reduces the fat content of the dressing versus a full mayo dressing.  And it's got a little zing from chili (or chile) powder.  This dressing works well for other vegetable salads as well, including coleslaw.

I am using chive flowers right now b/c 1) I'm just so tickled you can eat them, 2) they've got only another couple of days before they dry up in the garden, and 3) they're really pretty in the salad.  Use 1/4 cup chopped chives or red onion instead, if you want.

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Cucumber Chive Flower Salad

I have recently discovered that the pale purple flowers topping chive stems are edible.  They're toothsome without being cronchy and are perfectly onion-y.  Pull the florets off the puffball of the flower and sprinkle them into salads (like the one below) or pilafs or on burgers or burritos.  If you don't have flowering chives growing in your garden, substitute about 2 tablespoons of snipped chives, sliced green onions or chopped red onion.

I use Splenda in the dressing rather than sugar as it dissolves better in the vinegar, but feel free to use an equal amount of sugar instead.

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