Recipes › Broccoli › Warm Broccoli Salad with Crispy Bacon, Sourdough Crumbs and Mustard Dressing
Warm Broccoli Salad with Crispy Bacon, Sourdough Crumbs and Mustard Dressing
This is a broccoli salad that earns the name — generous blanched-then-charred broccoli tossed with crispy smoked bacon lardons, crunchy golden sourdough crumbs and a punchy wholegrain mustard and cider vinegar dressing. It works as a substantial lunch or as a side dish bold enough to steal the show at the table. Everything is warm when it hits the plate, which is exactly how it should be.
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Ingredients
- 650 g broccoli, cut into medium-large florets, stalks sliced into 1cm rounds
- 200 g smoked bacon lardons
- 100 sourdough bread, torn into rough 1–2cm crumbsany good crusty white bread works
- 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
- 2 tbsp cider vinegar
- 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp runny honey
- 1 cloves garlic clove, finely grated
- 40 g parmesan, finely grateduse pecorino for a sharper flavour
- 1 shallot, finely diced
- 15 g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp flaked sea salt
- 1 pinch black pepper, freshly ground
Contains: cereals gluten, milk, mustard, sulphites.
Method
- Make the dressing by whisking together the wholegrain mustard, cider vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, honey, grated garlic and diced shallot in a bowl. Season well with salt and black pepper. Set aside — the shallot will soften slightly in the acid while you cook everything else.About 3 min
- Bring a large pan of well-salted water to the boil. Add the broccoli florets and stalk rounds and blanch for 2 minutes — they should be just starting to turn tender but still have crunch. Drain and spread on a clean tea towel or kitchen paper to dry completely. This step is important: wet broccoli will not char in the pan.About 5 min
- While the broccoli drains, heat a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the bacon lardons with no extra oil and fry, stirring occasionally, for 6–8 minutes until deeply golden and crispy. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a plate, leaving the rendered fat behind in the pan.About 8 min
- Add the torn sourdough crumbs to the bacon fat in the pan. Fry over a medium heat, tossing frequently, for 3–4 minutes until golden and crunchy all over. Transfer to the plate with the bacon.About 4 min
- Increase the heat to high. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the same pan, then add the dried broccoli in a single layer. Press down slightly with a spatula and cook without moving for 2 minutes to get some char on the cut faces. Toss and cook for a further 1–2 minutes. Season lightly.About 4 min
- Tip the hot broccoli into a large bowl. Pour over the mustard dressing and toss to coat. Add the crispy bacon and sourdough crumbs and toss again briefly — you want the crumbs to stay crunchy so do not overwork it. Transfer to a serving platter, scatter over the grated parmesan and chopped parsley, and serve immediately.
Tips
- The key step is drying the blanched broccoli thoroughly before it goes back into the hot pan. Even a little surface moisture will cause it to steam instead of char, and you lose that contrast of tender floret with nutty, dark edges.
- Toss the salad and add the crumbs right before you serve — if it sits, the sourdough will go soggy and you lose the texture that makes this dish.
- This works brilliantly as a side with a simple roast chicken. Double the quantity if you are feeding a crowd.
Ring the changes
- To make this vegetarian, skip the bacon and instead fry 150g of thinly sliced chestnut mushrooms in olive oil until deeply golden and meaty. The dressing and crumbs do enough heavy lifting to make it satisfying without the meat.
- Swap the sourdough crumbs for 60g of toasted pine nuts if you want a gluten-free version — they give a similar richness and crunch.
Keeping it
This salad is best eaten immediately while still warm. If you need to prep ahead, make the dressing, cook the bacon and crumbs, and blanch the broccoli up to 2 hours in advance. Keep everything separate at room temperature and char and assemble just before serving. Leftovers will keep in the fridge for 1 day but the crumbs will soften.
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