Broccoli Salad

This delicious broccoli salad is made without bacon for a fabulous vegetarian version of a classic recipe. It’s crunchy, loaded with flavor and perfect for picnics!

This broccoli salad is so seriously delicious you’ll barely believe you’re eating salad.

It’s crunchy, fresh and smothered in the best creamy dressing. Basically, it’s your new favorite salad.

Broccoli salad traditionally includes bacon bits, so we decided to go with chopped sun dried tomatoes instead for a vegetarian version, and it worked SO well.

You won’t miss the bacon that’s for certain.

Ingredients For Vegetarian Broccoli Salad:

Ingredient Notes & Substitutions

• Broccoli – fresh crisp raw broccoli is the star ingredient. There is no need to cook it! In fact you absolutely must not. The vinegar in the dressing breaks it down a bit and makes it softer, but it still has plenty of crunch and freshness. You can buy broccoli florets or you can cut florets off a head of broccoli.
• Dried cranberries – can be replaced with raisins if you like.
• Sun dried tomatoes – are chopped up for the perfect bacon substitute in this salad.
• Roasted salted cashews – can be replaced with sunflower seeds or other nuts like almonds, pine nuts or pecans.

How To Make Broccoli Salad

Full instructions and measurements can always be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.

• Add apple cider vinegar, light brown sugar, mayonnaise, salt and pepper to a mixing bowl and whisk together.

• Combine broccoli florets, red onion, dried cranberries, sun dried tomatoes and cashews in a mixing bowl and toss them together.

• Pour over the creamy dressing and toss everything together until mixed.

• Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving for the flavors to blend.

Chef’s Tips

Wash and dry the broccoli very well. If it’s not properly dry then it will water down your dressing. The best way to dry it after rinsing is in a salad spinner.

Chop up the broccoli into bite sized pieces. If the pieces are too large then they will be hard to eat, so cut them into bite sized pieces.

Swap some of the mayonnaise for Greek yogurt. If you want to lighten up this salad then you can switch half the mayonnaise for Greek yogurt.

Chill in the fridge for 1 hour. It needs at least an hour for those flavors to blend beautifully. You can leave it longer than an hour, but it must be at least an hour.

Make Ahead and Storage

Make ahead: This is the ideal salad to make ahead of time because the longer it sits in the fridge the better those flavors are! So you can make it up to 24 hours in advance, keep it stored in the fridge and then serve.

Storing: Keep any leftovers stored in the fridge in a covered container for 3-4 days.

More Delicious Salad Recipes

1. Chickpea Chicken Salad
2. Greek Pasta Salad
3. Greek Salad
4. Roasted Pumpkin Salad
5. Macaroni Salad

Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below.