Broccoli Peas Salad

When my friend M asked me to make a broccoli salad in the same vein as the one you get at Fresh Choice, I was stumped! While I haven't been to Fresh Choice in a while, I did remember their broccoli salad as being pretty good. Just as I was about to go looking for the recipe, M comes to the rescue with a link to a few Broccoli salad recipes.

I liked this simple, yet amazingly tasty version that takes mere minutes to put together!! The only change I made was skip the bacon and added some grated carrot instead given that I was making this for M's son's birthday party which had a lot of vegetarian guests attending :)

I recently made this salad for a picnic where it made for one perfectly refreshing summer cooler. Given the fact that this recipe calls for the salad to be chilled ahead of time, definitely adds to its cooling effect!

One of the best things about this salad is that even the hard core broccoli haters ended up loving it (well it does have a lot of mayo to make the broccoli go down smoother ;). Now only if Bush Sr had tried this version, he would not go down in history as the president who banned broccoli from the White House(whoa!!)

Broccoli Peas Salad (inspired by Southernfood)
Ingredients
1. 5 cups fresh broccoli florets
2. 1/2 cup raisins
3. 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
4. 1/4 cup of red onion, chopped
5. 1 cup of frozen peas, thawed
6. 1 cup grated carrot (optional)
For the Dressing
1. 1 cup mayonnaise
2. 2 tablespoons vinegar
3. 1/2 cup sugar

Method
1. Combine broccoli florets, raisins, sunflower seeds, chopped onion, and peas in a salad bowl
2. In a separate bowl, mix together mayonnaise, vinegar and sugar to make the dressing
3. Add the dressing to the salad and mix well
4. Chill well before serving.

Enjoy :)