Cauliflower Salad

mickie49's Note:

When I was pregnant with first DD,26 years ago, my favorite aunt made this salad almost every week for me because I craved it so much! I don't know where Aunt Grace got the recipe but it sure has been well used for many years! I still make it at least once a month! It will last for several days in the 'frig( if I don't totally devour it faster). The only hard part of the recipe is breaking the cauliflower into VERY small florets because the smaller you break them the better the salad turns out! Cook time is really time for salad to marinate.

• Total Time: 8 hrs 30 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 8 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• mediun head cauliflower , broken into very small florets
• 3 medium carrots , coarsely shredded
• 3 celery ribs , julienne sliced
• ½ cup sliced pimento-stuffed green olives
• ½ cup lightly packed fresh celery leaves
• ¼ cup salad oil
• ¼ cup white vinegar
• ¼ cup water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon seasoning salt

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix vegetables and olives, not celery leaves.
2. In a covered blender, at high speed, blend celery leaves and remaining ingredients, until celery leaves are just tiny,little flecks.
3. Pour over vegetables,toss to mix well.
4. Cover and refrigerate.
5. Do early in the day or the night before, to allow flavors to properly meld.

Reviews

[dianegrapegrower]

Made per the recipe, the night before as directed. Phew - when I opened in the next evening to serve, the smell of the cauliflower was overwhelming. Flavor didn't quite work for us either - celery and cauliflower were not complimentary. Sorry -

[Chef-Boy-I-Be Illinois]

I liked this salad very much. Good combination of raw vegetables with salty olives. I kept the salad in a gallon ziploc bag in the fridge, and we have been eating off of it all week. We had to adjust the seasonings to suit our tastes at the table. This meant the addition of a little more salt and a couple splashes of vinegar. Next time I make this, I think I will reduce the amount of water in the dressing and add more vinegar. But that's just personal taste. Thanks for sharing this!

[Perfectionist cook]

I made this as directed breaking up the florets into really small pieces and marinating overnight. I used some feta-stuffed gourmet green olives that I found and Emiril's Bayou Blast as the seasoning salt as recommended by another reviewer. This was a nice salad, not too vinegary and I liked the fact it used raw vegetables. However the Bayou Blast (it was the first time I had made it) didn't suit the salad as well as I had hoped, and the thyme especially was totally wrong for this particular vegetable combination. I feel an Italian or Greek seasoning might have been better. Perhaps dill or fennel might be another appropriate herb?