Broccoli and bacon salad

This is my bounty from the morning's farmers market: tender young radishes, soft red strawberries, and a half kilo of peas. And all at what, in my continual adaptation to Scandinavia, now seem like reasonable prices: five dollars each for the peas and strawberries, and only one dollar for the radishes.

I love peas in the spring. I love the way they grew up our balcony railings in Budapest last year, confounding the neighbors and giving us fresh peas even in 30° heat. To me, a large bowl of fresh peas is the springtime equivalent of a bowl of mandarin oranges: placed on the table after a meal, they bring a refreshing closure.

Despite all my complaining about high prices in Denmark (it's the $14 for a pint of beer which really gets to me), one vegetable is reliably available and always inexpensive: broccoli. I don't understand it. A head of broccoli typically costs 7 kroner (or 12 kroner for organic broccoli). This is just over one dollar (or about two dollars for the organic). The only explanation I can think of is that Danes don't like broccoli. Luckily, I do. And I eat a lot of it.

This salad is my favorite new way of using broccoli: quick, simple and as tasty as it gets. (That's the bacon. The foodie scene may have had it with bacon-flavored ice creams and crème brûlées, but I'll never tire of plain, simply cooked bacon.) Fry up some bacon – while it's in the pan, cook some broccoli [please do not overcook it] – let the broccoli cool slightly – combine the bacon and broccoli with some lettuce and chopped green onions (both the tops and bottoms) – and toss with a simple olive oil-balsamic or walnut oil-balsamic vinaigrette. Eat. Enjoy. Be glad it's spring.