Whole Foods - Broccoli Crunch Salad

I'm addicted to this and highly recommend anyone to try it if you have not.

So, if you haven't, this is what the salad includes:

Broccoli
Mayo
Red Onions
Sun Flower Seeds
Bacon - hmmmm
Raisins/Currants
Some type of vinegar, maybe cider

Anyways, I've tried remaking this and get stuck every time. I believe they cook the broccoli in boiling water for a minute, then throw it in an ice bath to keep the color/crunchiness, but am not sure.

I've tried searching the internet and there are some copy cat recipes, but nothing with the same ingredients above. Does anyone have anything they've tried that is close?

Could you clarify: is this a dish that is prepared at Whole Foods and you are trying to replicate it at home? Have you asked anyone at WF how they made it?

You can purchase the broccoli crunch salad in the "deli" section of WF, already made.

I asked this past weekend, at the South Loop location, but the girl wasn't sure and said she was new. They were really busy as well, so I wasn't going to waste their time.

Shaggy-

Somewhere in my recipe file or folder or stack of recipes to file, I have one very close to what you seek. IIRC, it did not call for blanching the broccoli, but I think I did it anyway. What is it about the recipes you tried that didn't work for you?

-The GP

Shaggywillis wrote:I asked this past weekend, at the South Loop location, but the girl wasn't sure and said she was new.

I wouldn't get my hopes up on a WF deli worker knowing how the salad as made. I once asked for two chicken thighs at the WF deli (Cicero/Peterson) and the worker asked me which piece was the thigh. When I responded "you're kidding, right?" they answered "I'm not a chef"

~sigh~

Good Eats bust had a show on broccoli the other day and included a broccoli slaw that sounds pretty close in prep with ingredient modifications made by WF. You should look that up but I don't think he cooks the broccoli, it's just marinated in a vinegar mixture for at least an hour. Let us know if you learn anything else. Thanks.

Looking through a variety of recipes on-line (including a similar WF recipe at http://www.chowhound.com/topics/448764), it looks like the basic idea is to steam or blanch the broccoli then add the onions, currants, bacon and seeds in roughly equal proportions. Mix with a sauce made from mayo thinned out a bit with vinegar. The exact proportions of the onion, currants, bacon, and seeds is really up to your taste. Same with the balance between mayo and vinegar.

What do you mean that you get stuck every time?

If you can't locate an exact recipe and you are not happy with results from your own experimentation, why don't you reverse engineer it? Buy some from WF. Figure out the rough proportions of the seeds, bacon, currants, and onions. Bite into broccoli to see if it is raw, blanched, or cooked through. Then make a few small batches of dressing to see if you can mimic theirs.

Allrecipes.com has a ton of versions for this salad. I've made it myself. I think it had vinegar and sugar, and I blanched the broccoli, and added the cheddar cheese. This is an old Adkins type recipe I've taken to many carb free dinners.

Lot's of good ideas everyone. I'm going to have to just buy some, make a small batch - compare and contrast, make more, compare and contrast, etc...like a true scientist.

My problem is the taste. The first time I added too much vinegar, the second time the broccoli crunch/texture was off. The third time the bacon was too crisp (is there such a thing?).

G Wiv wrote:

Shaggywillis wrote:I asked this past weekend, at the South Loop location, but the girl wasn't sure and said she was new.

I wouldn't get my hopes up on a WF deli worker knowing how the salad as made. I once asked for two chicken thighs at the WF deli (Cicero/Peterson) and the worker asked me which piece was the thigh. When I responded "you're kidding, right?" they answered "I'm not a chef"

~sigh~

no surpise there, Whole Foods isnt hiring fish mongers, and butchers. Another reason I dont shop there.

Whole Foods has a cookbook where they have many of the recipes of what they produce in the deli. You might want to buy that or just flip through the book in the store to check the proportions.

here's one I cribbed from one of the many cooking blogs I follow. I am quite sure the broccoli is raw in this recipe:

Broccoli Salad

Ingredients

6 C of fresh broccoli florets
.25 of a red onion (or to taste), thinly sliced in half inch pieces
.5 C dried cranberries
.5 C sunflower seeds
mayonnaise
sugar

click thru to the blog post for the method

From speaking to someone in the deli at my local whole foods market, it is not apple cider vinegar that is used, the dressing consists of mayo, apple cider, and a little sugar. Hope this helps.

jimswside wrote:... Whole Foods isnt hiring fish mongers, and butchers. Another reason I dont shop there.

What does this mean? That they are fully staffed and aren't currently hiring, or are you saying that butchers and fish mongers don't work at WF? If the latter, I can confidently say that you are mistaken.

Also, just as you don't have to be able to lay an egg to make an omelet, you don't have to be a chicken, or a butcher, to know what a chicken thigh is.

Kennyz wrote:

jimswside wrote:... Whole Foods isnt hiring fish mongers, and butchers. Another reason I dont shop there.

What does this mean? That they are fully staffed and aren't currently hiring, or are you saying that butchers and fish mongers don't work at WF? If the latter, I can confidently say that you are mistaken.

I base my statement on a couple of visits to two different WF meat, and seafood counters, the kids staffing these counters knew very little about the products they were attempting to sell. Maybe I caught WF on bad days, a shift change, or the real butcher, and fish monger were on break, or had called in sick those days.

Based on these visits I was not surprised at the deli workers lack of knowledge & response regarding chicken thighs that another poster encountered.

Kennyz wrote:What does this mean? That they are fully staffed and aren't currently hiring, or are you saying that butchers and fish mongers don't work at WF? If the latter, I can confidently say that you are mistaken.

Kenny,

I'd guess each WF has a staff butcher and fishmonger on site for an 8 hour shift 5-days a week, but the majority of 'butcher/fishmongers' behind their respective counters are not trained commensurate with prices charged. Let me share another little WF shopping exchange.

I've taken to making burgers, in particular for the grill, with a mix of 50/50 ground bison and chuck. Not seeing bison in the meat counter I inquired with the 'butcher' if there was any in back to which she answered in the negative. Remembering 'my' WF (Cicero/Peterson) has dropped items since opening, Cornish hens, duck, duck parts and turkey thighs for example, I asked if they were still going to carry bison. The 'butcher's' response, "no, the Euro, you know"

With widened eyes and a smile on my face I asked her to check with another butcher, in no time flat a bloody aproned butcher pops out of the back, snags a pack of bison from the cooler case off to the side and says they will have more fresh ground tomorrow.

Quality and selection, within a type, are generally good at WF, though often price and service do not match.

Enjoy,
Gary

jimswside & Gary,

I have had similar lousy service experiences at Whole Foods. There is always at least one professionally trained, experienced butcher, fishmonger and chef onsite - but those people have so many responsibilities, that they're not usually who we as customers interact with. Fortunately, the rest of the staff is usually so inept that it's really easy to tell the difference between them and the professionals. Particularly when it comes to fish, I just ask to speak to the person in charge - and he (it's never been a she) happily comes out to handle whatever request I have. Usually, I'm looking for answers about freshness and for filets to be cut according to my rather picky specifications. The reason I keep coming back to the fish counter, is that they’ve always been very willing to waste large amounts of their expensive fish when I tell them that some of the pieces are 1 inch thick at the center and 5/8 inch at the sides, even though I specifically said I wanted even thickness in all of my pieces. I always walk out of there with exactly what I want – something that I’ve found virtually impossible at even the best fish markets in the city.

Kenny

While I have encountered many intelligent, competent and personable personnel at WF, it's also the case that the stupidest supermarket personnel I have encountered anywhere were at WF. If I kept having supermarket encounters long enough over enough different chains I might find that the stupid-quotient at WF is no worse than anywhere, but that has not been my experience. My experience has been that it is worse. I don't know why that should be.

Just try to imagine someone in the meat dept. at Jewel not knowing what a chicken thigh was. You can't!