Tenderheart Cook #6 Charred Broccoli Reuben Salad

One thing I love about the Tenderheart Cookbook is that it is organised by vegetables. If I have a lot of one vegetable to use up, I can turn to the appropriate section and pick out a recipe. This recipe is in the broccoli section, but I mainly chose it because I also had lettuce to use up. To make it a complete meal, I added some precooked chicken from our local small grocer.

Charred Broccoli Reuben Salad (p64) (with chicken)

The Quick Lowdown:

• Ingredients: I had to go to the store to get the gherkins, sauerkraut and mayonnaise, but these are all ingredients I’ll happily use in many meals.
• Prep-work: just a small amount of chopping
• Dirty dishes: Not many, a tray, chopping board and knife and a frying pan
• Taste: lots of high notes in this, the charred broccoli and a really interesting and tangy dressing.
• Family-friendly: I would say yes, dependent on your family’s tolerance for green things.
• Regular rotation worthy: Yes!

This is what I did (including my additions/ changes):

Ingredients:

• 4 slices of seeded bread (the original recipe specifies rye but best just to use what you have here)
• 2 tbs chopped dill
• Olive oil
• Sea salt and black pepper
• A bunch of broccolini cut into roughly 4cm lengths
• Cos lettuce thickly slices
• 1/3 cup sauerkraut, drained
• Pre-cooked marinated chicken tenders (you could use any protein here or none)
• 1/2 cup egg mayonnaise
• 1 small gherkin, chopped
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 2 tbs tomato sauce (ketchup)
• 2 green onions, sliced thinly

Method:

Preheat oven to 190C. Tear or cut the bread into chunks, toss in olive oil, season with salt and pepper and bake in the oven for ten minutes. Toss the bread, then return to the oven for a further five minutes. Allow to cool.

Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat and fry the broccolini in olive oil until lightly charred (2-3 minutes on each side). Remove from the pan and allow to cool.

To make the special sauce, combine the mayonnaise, gherkin, garlic, tomato sauce and green onions in a bowl and whisk until combined. Season with salt and pepper.

To assemble the salad, put the broccolini, bread, lettuce, chicken and sauerkraut in a bowl. Add the sauce and toss to combine. Sprinkle on the dill and serve.