Growing up, Popeye the Sailorman was one of my favourite cartoons. I liked how he was armed with strength after popping the can and eating the spinach. For some reason, instead of associating the spinach with callaloo, I always imagined Popeye’s spinach to be broccoli. The thought of eating broccoli used to gross me out. I couldn’t imagine eating it. All of that changed when I moved to Barbados and ate it for the first time – steamed.
I immediately fell in love with broccoli and it is now one of my favourite vegetables to eat – cooked and raw, flowerets and stems.
Slaws are usually composed of raw ingredients – sliced, shaved or shredded thinly or finely. To make this slaw you will need to remove the fibrous coating of the broccoli stems by simply using a potato peeler. The next important step will be to cut the flowerets into tiny bit-size pieces. If you like, you can opt to blanch the flowerets because I know that some people do not like their vegetables firm.
To blanch the broccoli flowerets – first cut them into small bite-size pieces, then add them to a pot of salted boiling water. Cook for exactly 1 minute, drain well and add to a bowl of ice and cold water to stop the cooking process. Let it stay in the cold water for 5 minutes then drain well. Add the drained broccoli to a clean cloth-kitchen towel and pat dry to remove all the excess moisture.
Now it’s time to make the Broccoli-carrot Slaw.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 large carrot
- 2 large bulbs of broccoli
- Whole mayonnaise
- Spicy or grainy mustard
- Salt and pepper to taste
- ½ teaspoon sugar or to taste
DIRECTIONS
- Shred the carrot on the large side of a box grater.
- Remove the stems from the broccoli, peel the fibrous coating and then shred the crisp stems on the finer side of the grater.
- Cut the flowerets into tiny, bite-size pieces. Blanch if necessary.
- Add shredded carrot, broccoli stems and flowerets to a bowl.
- Add mayonnaise, mustard, salt and pepper to suit your taste and dressing consistency, as well as the sugar. Mix well to coat the vegetables.
- Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate until you are ready to serve.
