Lettuce-less Broccoli Edamame Salad

I am so worried that the world is planting and eating too much lettuce! (Actually, I’m only partly kidding. See this report from Carnegie Mellon.) So I’m looking for salads which don’t always have arugula or romaine or iceberg in them. I came up with this one which is slightly Asian and totally beautiful – and d-lish. If you make the whole recipe AND DON’T DRESS IT until you use it, you’ll have a wonderful salad for several days in a row. Will the world thank you for going lettuce-less? Remains to be seen.

Lettuce-less Broccoli Edamame Salad

Servings: 4
Time: 45 minutes
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This is the kind of recipe that you can make your own. Add cooked thin rice noodles or green onions, barely-cooked peas, julienned daikon radish or thinly sliced red cabbage (does cabbage hurt the world?).

Ingredients

3 small heads of broccoli
8 oz frozen shelled edamame (I buy Eda-zen – which has 2 8-oz packs inside)
1 large carrot, peeled and grated (large grate)
1/2 c sliced almonds (toasting optional)
1 T toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Dressing

1 T sesame oil
1 T peanut or vegetable oil
2 T soy sauce
1 generous T of honey (or agave syrup)
3-6 T fresh lime juice (I prefer using about 3 T)
salt/pepper to taste
1/4 tsp of sriracha sauce or sambal oelek or whatever tickles your spicy taste buds

Fill a large pot with water, add about 1 T salt, and bring the water to a boil. While that is happening, remove the stems from the broccoli, and cut the broccoli heads into about 1″ pieces or florets (I find it easiest to just start thinly slicing the stems of the broccoli crosswise, going clear into the head until the florets just automatically separate into teeny perfect pieces. Add the florets to the boiling water and cook for about 2 minutes or until barely soft. Then remove the broccoli from the water and rinse with cold water. This is all to keep the color. You can cook the edamame with the broccoli, but you risk over-cooking the edamame. Best way, IMHO, is to do the edamame in the microwave, following the package instructions.

To make the dressing, mix all of the ingredients together and whisk with a fork.

If you’re eating some salad now and saving some for later, use the proportionate amount of dressing for your helping(s) of salad. And sprinkle some almonds and sesame seeds on top. The dressing is delicious, so you’ll want to be generous. Maybe you should have made double the dressing and had more leftover?! Next time.