Broccoli Bacon Salad

For the past couple years our company has held a holiday pot-luck; this year while I was looking over the carb loaded, cheese smothered sign-up sheet, I decided that I would do a vegetable. My first thought was a corn dish (probably one of the least nutritious vegetables). I was looking to see what I could do different with corn, last year I made a Corn Pudding and I wanted something different. The recipe that I found was a Corn Gratin, with lots of cheese, cream, bacon and to top it off fried onions; it sounded wonderful! Talk about making a veggie unhealthy. (Side note: I will make this at some point.) As I thought about it, I decided I would go green. The only other item on the sheet that was green was a spinach salad, and I am a stickler about my plate not being all one monochromatic mess.

I was first looking for an Asian Broccoli Slaw that I could tweak a bit, but instead I came across this Broccoli Salad. And guess what? It is only about 89 calories a serving, which is about a cup. (I couldn’t eat a full cup if I tried; this is full delicious roughage here.)

Broccoli Bacon Salad

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise

1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream

2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar

4 cups finely chopped broccoli crowns

1 8-ounce can sliced water chestnuts, rinsed and chopped
3 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
3 tablespoons dried cranberries

Freshly ground pepper , to taste

Whisk the first 5 ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and toss to coat. Chill overnight or at least 3 hours. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Simple and Delicious!