Raw Vegan Broccoli Salad

Today was Mothers Day! To all of you wonderful mothers out there – “Thank you” and Happy Mothers Day. On a personal note, it was my sister Kara’s first mother’s day as a new mum; and so we decided to celebrate in style with a lovely allergy free whole foods banquet. Not that celebrating our own fabulous mum wasn’t reason enough to put in a little effort in the kitchen. But this year we had a double whammy. Well, I am going to call it a triple whammy. As I started my day having breakfast with my dear friend Lyn, who has been like my second mum. I love her like my own blood. So I celebrated with three wonderful mums in my life.

So, I decided to come home and honour Lyn at our family lunch, by serving up one of her fabulous raw salad recipes. I share this raw broccoli salad with you today as a delicious way to serve up raw broccoli. I don’t know about you, but as much as I love raw food, I have always struggled to embrace raw broccoli. I absolutely love it lightly steamed or blanched; and tossed with olive oil, garlic and lemon juice; or drizzled with ghee and Celtic sea salt. Oh, show me the way to piggy heaven! I could stick my snout in the cooked broccoli trough all day long. But there has never been any love lost with raw broccoli. That was until my love affair started when Lyn served up her raw broccoli salad. It was love at first bite! Well, after I picked the bacon pieces out!

Her original dairy inspired recipe contained bacon, roasted nuts and seeds, refined sugar, and white vinegar. I decided to make it a tad more friendly for us sensitive pigs, and whipped up this raw vegan broccoli salad, that thankfully, continues to stoke the flames of my passion for raw broccoli, and keeps the love affair alive.

I have used raw sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds; and blanched raw almonds. I used raw vegan mayonnaise as the base for the salad dressing, instead of traditionally mayonnaise, in order to make this recipe egg free; and just added in some extra apple cider vinegar, lemon juice and agave. I have listed the quantities that I like. Adopt the blend and taste approach, in order to find your perfect blend for this vegan broccoli salad. You might like it with a bit more of a kick, and want to add in a bit more vinegar. lemon juice and sweetener. But this blend struck a nice tangy balance for me.

If you suffer from nut allergies, you could use soy bacon bits to jazz up this salad instead of blanched almonds. This adds in a splash of colour to this raw broccoli salad. But I do love the lush green colour that stands alone. If it is just an nut allergy to almonds, cashews work really well too. Traditional mayonnaise or soy mayonnaise can be substituted for the cashew mayonnaise that I have used. Obviously, it would yield a dressing of a slightly different personality. Just play around with the vinegar quantities and it will still taste delicious. Thank goodness for blend and taste.

Lyn swears that the secret to this raw broccoli salad is chopping the broccoli into really small bite size pieces. That way, you can grab the perfect bite with every lift of the fork – with a well coated piece of broccoli, celery, and seeds that creates a crunchy tangy taste sensation. I have a penchant for raw shredded salads for this very reason. Similarly, this vegan broccoli salad appeals to the socialist in me – every raw morsel should get an equal share of the dressing!

As this easy healthy recipe stands, it is a fantastic raw, vegan, dairy free, egg free, gluten free salad that keeps me in love with broccoli. It is dressed to impress, and absolutely delicious. Thanks Lyn. I love you.