The First Salad Of Spring
Salad shouldn’t be an obligation or an afterthought — and it doesn’t always have to be kale, either. Every other Thursday, Elizabeth Stark from Brooklyn Supper will help you make salads you actually want to eat.
Today: The season of bitter vegetables is finally over. Celebrate with spring broccoli sweetened by morning frost.
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(Photo: Elizabeth Stark)
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Food writers talk about vegetables like they’re a stable thing, but the truth is that good fresh food is a moving target — it’s a bit different every time you use it. We cooks have to taste our way through the Greenmarket or produce aisle (surreptitiously, of course) because depending on season, sunlight, climate, and growing conditions, kale or broccoli or Bibb lettuce can be bitter or sweet, chewy or limp, sublime or forgettable.
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(Photo: Elizabeth Stark)
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The season of bitter, chewy vegetables has now reached its end. Spring vegetables, especially cool weather-loving brassicas, are sweet and tender. One of my favorite springtime treats (before the really good stuff arrives, anyway) are the tiny broccoli tops that dot farmers markets in March and April. These aren’t the mass-produced, woody things — these are the very first shoots made sweet by the still frosty air. They’re a little hard to get a hold of: To get some, you’ll likely have to find a broccoli farmer and butter him or her up. If you can’t track down broccoli tops (not every region has a bustling farmers market in March), broccolini — a hybrid of broccoli and Chinese kale — will do nicely.
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This salad plays beautifully to spring’s first ingredients, with the light, lemony aioli dressing bringing out the sweetness of caramelized shallots, roasted red onions, and broccoli.
Related: How to make a better leafy salad without a recipe
More: Not over bitter foods just yet? Make this Burnt Toast Soup (with a side of broccoli rabe, of course).
(Photo: Elizabeth Stark)
Roasted Broccoli and Red Onions with Caramelized Shallots and Aioli
Serves 4
For the aioli:
1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more to taste
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced shallot
Sea salt
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Ground black pepper
In the bowl of a stand mixer or working with a handheld electric mixer, beat the egg yolk, lemon juice, garlic, shallot, and a generous pinch sea salt on medium speed for 1 to 2 minutes. When mixture is pale and opaque, add a splash of olive oil and beat until fully incorporated. Continue beating on medium speed while adding the olive oil a little at a time. Once you’ve added two-thirds of the oil, you can add it in bigger splashes. After adding all of the olive oil and the consistency is thick like mayonnaise, add sea salt and pepper to taste. Whisk in enough lemon juice so that the aioli is a bit thinner and forms soft peaks. Keep leftover aioli sealed in the fridge up to 3 days.
For the salad:
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
3 large shallots
Sea salt
1 pound young broccoli crowns or broccolini, ends trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch florets
2 red onions
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more to taste
Preheat the oven to 400° F.
Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons oil, then add shallots. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Turn heat to low and sprinkle on sea salt. Cook shallots, stirring occasionally, over low heat for 30 minutes, or until they’re golden brown and sweet.
Meanwhile, toss broccoli with 2 more tablespoons olive oil and spread on a rimmed baking sheet. Toss the red onions with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and stir them into the broccoli. Sprinkle with sea salt, paprika, and black pepper. Roast for 12 to 15 minutes, or until broccoli has started to brown on the edges and the onions are tender.
Toss the broccoli and onions with 1/4 cup aioli. Fold in the caramelized shallots. Finish with sea salt and pepper to taste, then serve warm. Though best warm, this salad keeps well in the fridge for a day or two.
