Broccoli goes well with cheese. Cheese goes well with broccoli. Those are two culinary hard facts. I was served this salad in a hotel after I had played the awkward customer and complained about the lack of choice for vegetarians in the buffet dinner. I thought I recognised the broccoli from the night before when it had been served as an optional accompaniment to some roast lamb or something like that (I'm not very good at identifying such things). I've got nothing against making imaginative use of left-overs and it was a very good salad. I jotted down the ingredients on a paper napkin and managed to reproduce it in the lab when I got home. Here's how to do it.
Ingredients
500g of steamed broccoli
2 or 3 thick slices of bread
A handful of pitted black olives
150g of strong hard cheese
3 dessert spoons of olive oil
1 dessert spoon of cider or wine vinegar
Salt
Cut the bread into 2 cm cubes and put them on a tray in the oven at a fairly low heat until they are dry and beginning to toast. Cut the cheese into small cubes and cut up the broccoli roughly. Chop the olives, too. Mix everything together and add a little salt. Put the olive oil and vinegar in a cup or small jar (along with a pinch of mustard powder if you have it). Cover the container and shake well. Pour the dressing over the salad immediately and mix it in.