Broccoli and Avocado Salad (without Avocado) from 60-Minute Gourmet by Pierre Franey

A few days ago I was reading Kate Morgan Jackson's post on her facebook page (Kate of the blog Framed Cooks) that had something to do with the cookbook 60-Minute Gourmet by Pierre Franey. And I thought, hey (!), I have that cookbook! And I haven't used it in years!  So I went and pulled it out and looked for recipes I could make without going to the grocery store that day. And I found three. And then I did something else and I forgot all about wanting to cook out of this book. For several days.



But this morning, I remembered! And I'm glad I forgot and then remembered again because in the several days that went by my avocado went bad. If it hadn't gone bad I would never have substituted and then I might not have liked the dish quite so well and then I never would have eaten this dish, nor photographed it, nor written about it. And what fun is that?

This is what it looked like when I was trying to be fancy like Pierre:

But I'm not French and I'm not male and I don't really know how to plate food and I wanted to eat more than three pieces of grapefruit and three pieces of broccoli so this is what it looked like when I ate it:

And it was delicious.

Here's what I did (and I'll add some notes after to let you know more about the original recipe):

1 small bunch broccoli
salt
2 small grapefruit (Use a sharp knife to slice the peel off the grapefruits including all the white pith, then cut between the membranes to release the grapefruit segments. Squeeze the leftover membrane and reserve the grapefruit juice.)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons grapefruit juice (See above instructions for the 2 small grapefruit.)
2 tablespoons olive oil
freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Cut the broccoli tops into florets. If the pieces are large, split them at the bottom and cut in half. Rinse and drain.
2. Drop the broccoli into boiling salted water. When the water comes back to a boil, pour the contents of the pan into a colander and rinse with cold water and drain. Chill the drained broccoli in the refrigerator.
3. Once the broccoli is chilled (about 30 minutes), arrange alternate pieces of broccoli and grapefruit segments on each of 4 plates.
4. Whisk the remaining ingredients in a small bowl and pour it over the broccoli and grapefruit. Serve immediately.

Now, Mr. Franey did pretty much the same thing. Except he used avocado slices in place of the grapefruit slices. I am certain it would be extremely tasty this way. And I think it would be nice to try it with both the avocado and the grapefruit segments. Which reminds me of my grandmother who made a delicious salad of grapefruit segments and avocado slices and poppy seed dressing. Have you ever had it?