I need to go on another detox.
Between the cake and the cake and the gourmet doughnuts and the fried pickles and the beer and the grease-laden pad thai and the red velvet milkshakes—woo! It’s been a weekend.
I went to Austin this past weekend to catch the tail end of SXSW and while the bands were surprisingly jammin’ (I was of the mind of: with that many bands, can they really ALL be good?), let’s be real: a lot of the weekend was about the food. The star feature that far outshone the rest was simultaneously the best moment of my life and the absolute worst: the doughnuts of insane greatness from Gourdough’s.
These doughnuts should not be allowed. There are doughnuts and then there are doughnuts and then there are GOURDOUGH’S DOUGHNUTS. They are the thickest, crispiest, most amazing chunks of fried dough I have ever tasted. My friend Mel, our awesome host, Colin, and I ordered THREE. Mis-take.
We could not finish. They were massive. They were amazing. I got the Black Out, but surprisingly, Granny’s Pie was probably my favorite. Mama’s Cake was a good classic with a great ribbon of cake batter flavor, but Granny’s Pie was all-out decadent with the syrupy caramel, crunchy nuts and what looked like an entire fresh banana sliced over the top.
So it’s a good thing I like broccoli. This was one of my favorite salads from my detox, tweaked just a little. I am in love with this dressing (I was never a mustard-buyer before, but now it will forever be in my fridge just for the few teaspoons I use here and there in salad dressing). When I first made this, I was out of chickpeas and subbed in a random can of butter beans, but I actually loved the slightly grainy creaminess of the butter beans in the tangy dressing and soft tangle of broccoli and parsley.
This is SO yum, it won’t even feel like a detox-friendly meal, promise. It might almost be as good as eating a doughnut! (HA!)
{Detox} Broccoli Bean Salad
Ingredients
- 5-6 cups broccoli florets
- 15- oz can drained and rinsed butter beans
- 5 sliced green onions
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1 minced clove garlic
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
- 1/4 cup lemon juice ~2 lemons
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Steam broccoli florets until just tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Once cool, chop and combine with butter beans, scallions and parsley.
- In a bowl, combine garlic, mustard, honey, lemon zest and juice. Whisk in oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Drizzle broccoli mixture with dressing. Add more salt and pepper if it needs it.
I’ll take a detox with you! Starting with this delicious salad! It can be hard to yank yourself away from delicious cake and brownies, but salads like yours are definitely a treat too!!
So true! I should start referring to salads as “treats!”
Detox or no, this looks like something I would LOVE to eat! So fresh and clean looking. Can’t wait to try it.
Thanks Katie! I hope you get a chance to try it out–it’s seriously crazy delicious 🙂
Oh man…those dougnuts are something. I love how the photo’s text gets really ittybitty because there’s SO MUCH amazingness in the doughnut.
You’re so good about getting back on the train after having an indulgent weekend! After travelling, it takes me a looong time to adjust to healthful eating again :-/
Yeah whoops…I meant for that text to be actually readable, but the photo was just too wide. Ha, I love how I’m giving off this impression of strict discipline but I really am not at all like that!! I just made this when I came back to try to counteract everything else “bad” that I continued to eat when I came back…sigh. Isn’t travelling the best/worst?!
Love broccoli! 🙂
Ummm…those are the king of donuts there! Those amazing flavour combinations are blowing my mind. You deserved the indulgence, don’t feel guilty about it! This broccoli bean salad DOES look good (and this is coming from someone who is a total glutton). And I can tell just by reading the ingredient list that you dressing kicks ass.
Haha YES they are…they’re totally insane. I wish I could have shipped one to you somehow!! I feel like you would have LOVED them 🙂
holy crap those doughnuts look and sound so dangerous. glad to hear you had a great food-filled weekend! haha it’s funny I was never a fan of mustard either until I wanted to try it out for a similar salad dressing and now I keep a full bottle in the fridge just to make the dressing on occasion! I just ate two of those microwavable chocolate mug cakes, so this detox salad is probably a good idea for me… 😛
Oh YAY! That makes me feel much less freakish to know that other people buy mustard just to use in dressings. Haha. There is no other way I’d eat it, but it such a kick in salad! Umm two microwave cakes sounds AMAZING can we hang out?
Oh my days. Those doughnuts! Mmmmmmm. You are so good to detox after- if that happened to me, I just try to pretend it didn’t… Hahaha. Ignore and it’ll go away! I need your will power.
Lol I didn’t quite detox fully after! It was more like a diet of this + random muffins and scones and other things that I just had to make. Awful. Haha I want YOUR willpower that makes me move enough to eat all this and still be skinny!!
Wow. That was one giant bean!
Broccoli is a classic that never goes out of stile, but you put it in the combination that looks so fresh! I am glad you make it to the SXSW!
Thanks Irena! You’re too sweet 🙂
Haha! Sounds like Austin was incredible…wow those doughnuts sound incredible, but surely would give me a heart attack lol! Next time I’m there I will totally have to check it out. Doughnuts used to be my weakness before I went vegan. My favorites are classic glazed and chocolate covered. Austin is my favorite city by the way 🙂
I love broccoli and the salad looks simple and delicious!
Oh my gosh yes Austin was amazing and so were the doughnuts…ugh. They take chocolate covered to a whole new level! And I love Austin too–love the hippie vibe and how everyone is so laid back and you can walk everywhere and they recycle and they’re so vegan/vegetarian-friendly!! I wish Houston could steal more of their vibe!
Ohhh… broccoli is my favorite vegetable!!! I love it 🙂 Sometimes, I’ll just get a frozen bag and eat it for dinner. Weird, I know- but somehow it works some nights. I love this way of dressing it up and adding in the butter beans, I will definitely have to try this!!
No actually that sounds amazing!! I never buy frozen broccoli because my mom always bought the fresh kind and I feel like frozen is cheating (although I totally buy frozen peas, what?) but that would make things SOOO much easier. Like, I would eat broccoli 24/7 pretty much. I love broccoli with cheese, broccoli with soy sauce, broccoli with butter and salt, this kind of broccoli…any kind! What’s your fav? And yay, you should!!
Erika, you are so funny. I do feel that sometimes our livers would love us so much more if we took care of it. Beautiful little fresh green salad.
Thanks Bam 🙂 I agree!
Erika,
Glad you were able to make it to Austin for SXSW music — so great!! And yeah, Gourdough’s is pretty incredible!
Kenley
Oh my goodness. Mind-blowing! Ah! I just looked at your page and you live right outside of Austin. So jealous! If I lived there I would be there every weekend! Ha 🙂
Haha…if that was the case I would have to do a detox of water ONLY during the week, lol! 🙂