Super-easy, Super-colorful Broccoli Slaw

by Leslie Budewitz

The standard cole slaw, with its creamy dressing, sometimes studded with caraway seeds, is a deli staple around the country. This easy version is a fabulous substitute, very forgiving of amounts and open to many variations. I like to use baby broccoli or broccolini instead of the more common variety, in part because many grocers chop off and discard the stems. I suppose many customers do prefer the florets, but the stems hold a lot of vitamins and minerals, and the thin stems of baby broccoli or broccolini are quite tender, even raw. This is a bright and beautiful salad that goes well with any protein—grilled chicken, a stuffed burger, or salmon are particularly good. And it keeps well for lunches.

Broccoli Slaw

½ pound baby broccoli or broccolini (stalks and florets), thinly sliced
2 medium to large carrots, grated
1/3 to ½ small red cabbage, thinly sliced and chopped.
½ cup raisins (optional)

Scant ½ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
salt and pepper, to taste

 Place the broccoli, carrots, cabbage, raisins, and any other additions in a large bowl and stir to combine. In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, brown sugar, and vinegar, using a small whisk or a fork. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and stir to coat. Season with salt and pepper to your own taste—a touch of salt nicely balances the sweetness of the dressing.

Other tasty additions: half a red bell pepper, thinly sliced and chopped, 1-2 tablespoons of poppy seeds, half a green apple, diced, or 1/4 cup toasted, chopped walnuts or sunflower seeds.

From the cover of ASSAULT AND PEPPER, March 2015 (Berkley Prime Crime):

Pepper Reece, owner of the Seattle Spice Shop, thinks she can handle any kind of salty customer—until a murderer ends up in the mix…

After leaving a dicey marriage and losing a beloved job in a corporate crash, Pepper Reece has found a new zest for life running a busy spice and tea shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Her aromatic creations are the talk of the town, and everyone stops by for a cup of her refreshing spice tea, even other shopkeepers and Market regulars.

But when a panhandler named Doc shows up dead on her doorstep, a Seattle Spice Shop cup in his hand, the local gossip gets too hot for Pepper to handle—especially after the police arrest Tory Finch, one of Pepper’s staffers, for murder.

Tory seems to know why she’s a suspect, but she refuses to do anything to curry favor with the cops. Convinced her reticent employee is innocent, Pepper takes it on herself to sniff out some clues. Only, if she’s not careful, Pepper’s nosy ways might make her next on the killer’s list…

INCLUDES DELICIOUS RECIPES!

Leslie Budewitz is the only author to win Agatha Awards for both fiction and nonfiction—the 2013 Agatha Award for Best First Novel, for Death al Dente (Berkley Prime Crime), first in the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, and the 2011 Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction, for Books, Crooks & Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law & Courtroom Procedure (Quill Driver Books). She lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat Ruff, a cover model and avid bird-watcher.

Coming in July 2015: BUTTER OFF DEAD, third in the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries!

Connect with her on her website, on Facebook, or on Twitter.