I love a good broccoli salad. And I should be harvesting broccoli from my garden right now, but, alas, I never got it planted. Luckily, the grocery store has a pretty good supply.
I’ve been hungry for broccoli salad, and I had the perfect excuse to make it this week, because broccoli was the veggie I had chosen for the “In Season” page of the magazine. I needed to photograph it and set the amounts for the ingredient list. I got the recipe from my sis-in-law Brandi. She cooks like we do–rarely following an exact recipe, so when we share a recipe, it’s usually just a list of ingredients. It works fine for us, but when I want to post a recipe here or use it in Texas LIVE, giving a list of ingredients instead of exact amounts probably wouldn’t be very popular.
Here is my slightly adapted version of the recipe:
Broccoli Salad
2 heads of broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces
1/3 red onion, finely diced
1/2 cup pineapple, finely diced
3/4 cup dry cranberries, diced
1/3 cup salted sunflower seeds
6 slices cooked bacon, diced
1 cup sharp cheddar, finely shredded
1/2 cup coleslaw dressing (I used the plain Lighthouse brand. If you can find the pineapple version that Brandi recommends, you can skip the diced pineapple.)
Zest from one large lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients. Chill, serve, and enjoy!
Photography Notes:
Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: 24-70 mm f/2.8 G
Focal length: 70 mm
ISO: 500
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter speed: 1/320
Notes: I shot these on our back porch. It was bright and sunny outside, so this is all indirect light–perfect for many situations. Our kitchen is on the north side of our house, so even on a sunny day in the winter, there isn’t much light for photographing food in there.
I knew I would need a vertical shot for the magazine, so that’s mostly how I composed my shots. I thought I would take a few horizontal shots (since they are better for online), but I didn’t like them at all. The last two were my favorites. You can see I tried several different angles. I had the food sitting on a large cutting board, and I ended up turning the cutting board to a long direction so you can’t see any of the table in the last few pics.
I waited to put most of the dressing on until after I was finished with the pictures.
