There may be many people who like broccoli salad in the world, and I bear no ill will towards those people. You may be one of them, and for you I have included the original recipe from the grandmother. Good luck figuring out how many raisins to put it.

My first (and only) experience with broccoli salad was as a teacher in Texas, as the cafeteria lunch. It was gross. There was shredded orange mystery cheese, mayonnaise, raw broccoli, and I actually think that was it. To me broccoli salad seems like a dish for people who like neither broccoli nor salad. So I refuse to make the original recipe because I know I hate it and I’m not going to waste bacon.

My main goals working on this recipe were to make it more interesting and less dated. And what’s more 2022 than miso? So instead of raw broccoli with mayonnaise I’m going roasted broccoli with a miso dressing. And no raisins. I do actually like raisins but only where they make sense, broccoli and raisins don’t make much sense together to me.

This serves two people as a side or if you add a couple eggs on top it makes a great lunch.

Ingredients

1 head of broccoli

4 ounces of bacon

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons miso (red or white)

1 lemon (zest and juice)

1/3 cup fresh dill, chopped

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 F. Break broccoli into florets and roast on a sheet tray for 30 minutes. No oil or salt and pepper necessary. If there’s a stem on your broccoli head you can also chop that up and roast it.

• Cut bacon into quarter inch strips (lardons) and cook over medium heat until crispy. Remove to a paper towel to drain some of the fat off. Pour fat out of the pan (I save it in the freezer) and you can use the same pan to melt the butter.
• In a medium bowl (that you’ll use to mix the whole salad) whisk together melted butter, miso, lemon zest and juice and fresh dill. Mix in the bacon and toss with the broccoli until it’s coated. You can add a few grinds of pepper but with the miso and bacon you really don’t need salt. You can serve this “salad” warm, room temp or refrigerated.