Broccoli Salad Recipe

Broccoli Salad Recipe

This broccoli salad recipe is delicious and rather versatile on the ingredients.  If you like more, or less, of the other ingredients, then add more carrots or use fewer onions.  Like cherry tomatoes?  Add a few at serving time (to avoid excess juice), sliced in half.  I would avoid using very juicy tomatoes as the liquid would cause the dressing to be too runny.  Vegetarian?  Omit the bacon and add more nuts.  Don’t have any cashews?  Use toasted pecans, toasted pine nuts, toasted slivered almonds or even roasted peanuts instead.  Don’t like dried cranberries?  Use raisins.  Want more dressing?  Double the dressing ingredients.  This recipe easily doubles to feed more people.

Broccoli Salad Recipe

Serves 4 as a side dish

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Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Ingredients

  

• 4 slices bacon cooked crisp and chopped
• 12 - 14 oz. frozen broccoli florets ½ of the 24 oz. family size package
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• ½ cup small cubed or shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• ½ cup finely chopped or shredded carrot about two medium carrots
• ¼ cup finely chopped scallions or red onion
• ¼ cup cashews
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• 1 ½ teaspoons sugar
• 1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
• Sea salt or Kosher salt, and black pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• Cook the bacon, let it cool, and chop.
• In a steamer, steam the frozen broccoli for about five minutes in salted water, then take the basket out of the steamer and let it cool. If using fresh broccoli, be sure to cut it into small florets. Reduce cooking time appropriately for fresh broccoli— probably only two to three minutes of steam time is needed.
• Meanwhile, prepare the cheese, carrot, and onion on a cutting board. Mix the mayonnaise, sugar, red wine vinegar, with a pinch each of salt and pepper, and let stand for a few minutes for the sugar to dissolve. Stir again.
• When the broccoli is cool, mix all the vegetables, fruit, nuts, and the bacon in a large bowl. Stir in the dressing. Taste for salt and pepper and add one to two pinches of each as necessary.
• Cover tightly and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour. Stir before serving and taste again for seasonings.

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