Easy South Beach Recipes: Chinese Broccoli Salad

I know a lot of you faithful blog readers out there consider me the highest example of healthy eating, and I do try pretty hard, but this week I've really been eating a lot of junk I wouldn't normally touch. It's the holidays, and at school we're having treats every day. It's amazing how it works, but when I'm eating the wrong things, it doesn't take long before I start craving something simple, fresh, and light. This broccoli salad really fit the bill.

One thing I loved about this recipe was that it was suggested as a way to use broccoli stems. I didn't have that much broccoli, so I used the whole thing, but I'll remember it when I have a broccoli recipe that only uses the flowerets. This didn't keep well in the refrigerator, so make as much as you need for the meal.

This recipe was from The Ultimate Low Carb Cookbook, by Mary B. Johnson, a graduate of Cordon Bleu. If you're even remotely into lower carb eating I recommend the book. I see at least 20 recipes in there that I'd like to try. The spine of the book says Barnes & Noble Books, or check the online source above.

Chinese Broccoli Salad
(4 generous servings, from The Ultimate Low Carb Cookbook, with slight adaptations by Kalyn)

1 bunch fresh broccoli
2 tsp. salt (for cooking water)
Dressing:
3 T soy sauce
2 T dark sesame oil (often called toasted sesame oil)
2 T rice wine vinegar
1 tsp. Splenda or sugar (or less)

Cut off broccoli flowerets, cutting bigger ones into half or fourths. Peel broccoli stems and slice on diagonal. Bring a pot of water to a boil, add salt and broccoli and cook exactly 3 minutes. Drain broccoli and plunge into bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process, then dump broccoli into colander and let drain well and cool.

Combine dressing ingredients and wisk to blend. Just before serving pour dressing over broccoli and stir several times to coat broccoli with dressing. Serve at room temperature.

Made with Splenda, this would be a perfect recipe for any phase of the South Beach Diet. For phase one, this would be great with Grilled Chicken Sanpete Kabobs or Grilled Fusion Chicken. For phase two or three add Lake Powell Spicy Rice or Brown Rice with Cashews and Herbs.

Reminders:
In three days we've raised $5,260 $10,055 $13,380 through A Menu For Hope. (Visit First Giving to see how much the total has gone up since I posted this! I'll update every day until the campaign ends December 22.) There are three more fabulous new prizes from central U.S. bloggers, including a repeat of a popular prize from last year, or visit Chez Pim to see all the prizes. (How about a wonderful pasta machine?) Here's how to buy raffle tickets.

If you like Weekend Herb Blogging you'll love Holiday Cooking with Herbs, a special WHB event for people to share their favorite holiday recipes using herbs, plants, veggies, or flowers. A couple of people have already sent interesting recipes. We'll be saving the recap in the Weekend Herb Blogging section in the right sidebar for a reference for holiday recipes, so click the link above to see how to be a part of it.

You have until December 15 to nominate your favorite food blogs for the 2006 Food Blog Awards at Well Fed.

Apologies:
I am a little behind at updating my recipe archives and the WHB archives because I've been working on A Menu for Hope, so if you're looking for a recipe from the last couple of weeks, find it using the search bar in the top left sidebar. I'll be getting the archives back in shape this weekend.

To Print Recipes:
You can print any recipe without the header, sidebars, or photos by clicking on the main title of the post, then printing.

Tags:
Food Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
A Menu for Hope Weekend Herb Blogging