Grilled Broccoli Caesar Salad
The current incarnation of The Meatwave has between 30-40 friends show up at each cookout, almost all arriving promptly around start time. This has forced a change in a my recipe development to find things I can prepare ahead of time so I can both feed folks quickly and also lesson the load on myself and be able to have more hang out time. So when I decided to throw a pizza party last fall, I was looking for two or three dishes that could be mostly prepped in the days ahead and the idea of a grilled broccoli caesar salad popped into my had as fulfilling that primary goals, as well as fitting quite well into the overall menu for the day as well.
It was good that I started making this salad the day before because I ran into problems with the dressing. I like to make my caesar dressing from scratch and for the longest time this was a consistently simple task because I could form the needed emulsion quickly in my food processor, but the last few times doing this, the emulsion didn't form and I ended up having to fix it by hand. So I just wrote the recipe to be by hand since that's what I had success with, and it should be noted that I replaced the usual anchovies and Worcestershire with white miso paste so the final dish would be vegetarian-friendly.
Broccoli grills very well, and I particularly like how the tips of the florets get charred, a little crispy, and lightly smoky. The only thing with this veggie is that it needs to be cut into large chunks in order to prevent it from falling between the grates. So I started out with a bunch of whole broccoli crowns which allowed me to cut them into large florets before giving them a toss with oil, salt, and pepper before heading out to the grill.
Once I had a chimney full of coals all lit and covered in gray ash, I poured them out onto one side of the charcoal grate to create a two-zone fire. Then, with the grill grate in place, I set all the seasoned florets on the cool side of the grill and covered. I started checking doneness at around the ten minute mark and moved some of the faster cooking florets further from the fire, and slower cooking ones closer, as needed so the entire batch would be done at roughly the same time, which was around 20 minutes for me.
Once I cleared all the broccoli, I still had a lot of fire left, so utilized that to make the croutons. I had cubed up a loaf of crusty white bread and toss those with oil, parmesan,, and pepper. Then onto the cool side of the grill the bread went and cooked, covered, until the cubes were dried out and crunchy.
This was where I stopped for the day and I picked up the salad assembly just minutes before my friends arrived. That began with roughly chopping the chilled broccoli and placing it in a bowl with the croutons, dressing, and shaved parmesan. I tossed everything to get it well coated in dressing, then transferred the salad to a large serving bowl.
I am a fan of caesar salad, so I wasn't sure I wanted to mess with something so ubiquitous, but I'm glad I did because I kind of liked this better than a standard caesar. The reason for this was because the broccoli had it's own strong and distinct flavor that was a great foil for the equally strong caesar dressing. This created an overall better balanced salad in my opinion that worked well with the also very flavorful croutons and parmesan slivers. If you're only into caesar for the loads of dressing, you may have an opposite take on this salad than me, but this is definitely something I'll be cooking again. I served my salad cold out of necessity, but it will work with the warm broccoli too so you don't have to make it a multi-day process like I did if you don't want to or have the time.
