Broccoli Beet Salad with Bacon

Broccoli, beets, bacon. Everything in this salad starts with a B.

Ok, that's a lie. But those three do. The others not so much.

I had hoped to make something entirely different tonight, but somehow my fridge wasn't as well-stocked as I remembered. It seems that over the week that carton of a dozen eggs mysteriously dwindled down to just one without my noticing. I'm relatively sure that it's the same people who are stealing just one of my socks every time I do laundry.

So after coming to terms with the barren state of my fridge and kissing any notions of eating delicious quinoa fritters tonight goodbye, I had to make a hard decision. One of the top first-world problems: What should I have for dinner?

This salad was the answer. I was literally scrapping the sides of my yogurt container with a spatula trying to get every last scrap out and vigorously shaking my bottle of vinegar to get at the last drops. My fridge now consists of the rest of the head of cabbage and condiments, which I'm temporarily banned from, because they all seem to have added sugar. Booo. Clearly a shopping trip is in order soon.



Recipe

1 large head broccoli, chopped
1 cup green cabbage, finely shredded
1/2 beet, peeled and diced
1/2 red onion, diced
4 pieces bacon, fried and crumbled
1/3 cup gouda, grated
1/4 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Fry bacon until crispy and then drain off grease onto paper towels and set aside. Remove most of the grease from pan with a paper towel, leaving a tiny bit to toast the almonds in. Pour almonds into pan and toast, stirring frequently until they are slightly brown. In a large bowl, combine the broccoli, cabbage, beet, onion, gouda, cranberries, bacon and almonds.

Dressing
1 T. mayo
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3 T. reduced-fat sour cream
2-3 T. rice wine vinegar 
Salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and pour over salad. Depending on how "dressed" you like your salads, you may want to make more.