Broccoli Flower Salad

This post is especially for desert gardeners.  If you grow broccoli, you know how quickly it can go to flower in the heat.  In the past, the flowers meant it was time to take out the broccoli and plant something else.  This year, I learned that the flowers are just as tasty as the broccoli!  If you've had enough broccoli for the season--let it go to flower!  Those little flowers are sweet and yummy!  My kids pick and eat them whenever they are playing outside.  (Extra veggies without having to cook them--yea!)

They taste great in green salads, but this year, I made a salad just for them.  Here it is:

Summer Broccoli Flower Salad

(adapted from recipe by Brenda M. on Food.com)
Salad:

• 6 slices of turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled (You can use less, but I love bacon!!!)
• 4 cups of trimmed broccoli flowers (you can sometimes find them at the Farmers' Market)  (If you have less--just add more broccoli.)
• 1-2 cups of fresh chopped broccoli (can include stems--just trim off the hard outer skin)
• 1 cup medium cheddar cheese, shredded (optional)
• ¼ c sunflower seeds
• 1 small onion, chopped

Dressing:

• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• ⅛ cup sugar
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• ½ teaspoon lemon or lime juice

Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix dressing ingredients and add to salad.  Stir well and chill for at least an hour to allow the flavors to combine.  (Start with half of the dressing and then keep adding more to taste.  I used about ⅔ of the dressing for mine.)

I thought that the flowers might turn the salad into a mushy mess once I added the dressing, but the salad stayed pretty--even for leftovers the next day.

*I'm so sorry that these pictures are so awful!  The salad is much better than the pictures!