Broccoli Lettuce Salad

Salad is something that I should incorporate more into my food habits. Our family as such, we don’t eat much of raw food. I hardly touch the tomato or onion slices in lunch/dinner buffets. I won’t even stand close to cucumber or anyone eating it - so that is out of my list too. These days I am consciously making some efforts to include some raw vegetables into my diet. I soak a bowl of green gram at the start of the week and use the sprouts along with grated carrot for my evening snack. But then there are times I just get bored or would have to kick my lazy-self to do it every week.

This salad was prepared over the weekend – courtesy: my sister. She had been raving about this new salad at her workplace and how awesome it tastes. I wanted to see it for myself and luckily found a small pack of iceberg lettuce and broccoli. The next challenge was to find a proper dressing for the salad. I didn’t want to buy an entire bottle of a particular type of dressing and decided to make it myself and fixed this simple Thousand Island dressing which was just perfect. My dad who never ever touches anything that is green and looks uncooked, took a spoonful of this salad and loved it 🙂 So, there – that’s the success of this salad!

Recipe

What I used –

For the salad

• Broccoli, 1 cup
• Iceberg Lettuce Chopped, 1 cup
• Sweet Corn Kernels, ½ cup
• Grated Carrot, ½ cup

For the Thousand Island dressing

•  Eggless Mayonise, 2 tablespoon ( I used garlic Mayonise)
• Tomato Ketchup, 2 tsp
• Vinegar or Lime Juice, 1tsp
• Sugar, 1 tsp
• Pepper Powder, 1 tsp
• Mixed Italian Herbs, 1 teaspoon (I used Parsley, Oregano, Basil and Thyme)
• Salt, as required

How I made –

1. Clean and cut broccoli into florets. Blanch the florets in salted water for 5 mins. Similarly, blanch sweet corn kernels in salted water for a couple of minutes. Keep aside.
2. In a bowl mix the broccoli florets, sweet corn kernels, grated carrot and chopped iceberg lettuce. Note: Keep the iceberg lettuce immersed in ice cold water for retaining the crispness.
3. In a separate bowl, mix all the ingredients under Thousand Island dressing.
4. Pour the dressing on the vegetables and make sure its coated well all over. Salad is ready to be served! 🙂

Note: Iceberg lettuce adds a nice crunch to the salad and hence is essential. Other vegetables like chopped pineapple pieces, sprouts, cucumber or blanched zucchini can also be added.