Favorite Broccoli Salad
This broccoli salad recipe is the best! It's healthy, too, thanks to the delicious honey-mustard vinaigrette (no mayo). This broccoli salad packs great for lunch and potlucks. It'll be your new favorite!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 5, 2024
Let’s hit restart with my favorite broccoli salad recipe! It will become your new favorite, too.
This is the best broccoli salad I’ve ever had. Why? It’s crisp, crunchy and fresh, which is exactly what I want broccoli salad to be.
It’s also seriously addictive, thanks to the sweet-and-savory combination of freshly toasted sunflower seeds, dried cranberries and cheddar cheese.
I borrowed the honey-mustard vinaigrette from my Brussels sprout slaw, and it plays up raw broccoli’s best features. Who needs mayo when you have creamy and tangy honey-mustard dressing?
The Best Healthy Broccoli Salad
Standard potluck-issue broccoli salads include mayonnaise, sugar and bacon, and you won’t find any of those here.
I included the usual cheddar cheese since my assistant Mara absolutely loved it that way. The cheddar offers some creamy indulgence to the salad, which makes it a perfect transition food from rich holiday meals to healthier options.
That said, if you’re craving a lighter salad, you’ll also enjoy the recipe without cheese.
Watch How to Make Broccoli Salad
Is broccoli salad good for you?
Yes! I consider humble old broccoli to be a total super food, and this salad is loaded with broccoli. Broccoli is a member of the cruciferous family of vegetables, which offer potent anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer health benefits. Other members include cauliflower, cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts.
Broccoli is also high in fiber and folate. Learn more about broccoli’s health benefits here.
Do you have to cook the broccoli for broccoli salad?
No, raw broccoli is fairly standard in broccoli salads. It doesn’t taste completely raw in this broccoli salad, since the vinaigrette breaks down the broccoli a bit. Chop up your broccoli florets into very small pieces, and you will have an irresistibly fresh broccoli salad.
If you hate raw broccoli, though, you can blanch the florets. Add the florets to a pot of boiling water for 1 minute, then transfer the florets to an ice bath to halt the cooking process. Drain the cooled broccoli well before using.
If you’re looking for a packable, potluck-friendly side salad, this is it. I’ve enjoyed a big bowl of it as a light meal, too. Please let me know how it turns out for you in the comments!
If you’re looking for more pack-for-work options, I’ve got you covered right here.
Craving more broccoli? Don’t miss these recipes:
Favorite Broccoli Salad
This broccoli salad recipe is the best! It’s healthy, too, thanks to the delicious honey-mustard vinaigrette (no mayo). This broccoli salad packs great for lunch and potlucks. Recipe yields 6 side servings.
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 pound broccoli florets (from 1 ½ pounds broccoli stalks), thinly sliced and then roughly chopped (see photos)
- ½ cup raw sunflower seeds or slivered almonds
- ½ cup finely chopped red onion
- ½ cup grated sharp cheddar cheese (optional)
- ⅓ cup dried cranberries or dried tart cherries, chopped
Honey mustard dressing
- ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 medium clove garlic, pressed or minced
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- Toast the sunflower seeds: Pour the sunflower seeds into a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently (careful, they’ll burn!), until the seeds are turning golden on the sides, about 5 minutes. Pour the toasted seeds into a large serving bowl.
- Add the chopped broccoli, onion, cheese and cranberries to the serving bowl. Set aside.
- In a 1-cup liquid measuring cup or small bowl, combine all of the dressing ingredients (olive oil, vinegar, mustard, honey, garlic and salt). Whisk until the mixture is well blended.
- Pour the dressing over the salad and stir until all of the broccoli is lightly coated in dressing. I highly recommend letting the salad marinate for at least 20 minutes, or even overnight in the refrigerator.
- Divide the salad into individual bowls and serve. Leftovers will keep well for 3 to 4 days in the fridge, covered.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my honey mustard Brussels sprout slaw.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Can i use redgrapes indteadof cranberries
That would be very nice. The recipe is very flexible. I usually use red bell pepper instead of fruit.
This salad incredible; an instant family favourite.
Tried this Broccoli Salad last week. Have made it three times! Cannot believe how good it is to eat! Thank you! Happy family!
This a delicious Broccoli Salad!
Thank for sharing recipe!
Love this recipe. You are my go to site for delicious healthy recipes.
I love to hear that, Ellie!
This is the best Broccoli Salad. I love everything about it!
Excellent salad, blend of great flavors and textures!
We love broccoli salads. This recipe is our favorite.
This is absolutely my new favorite salad! (Have to add I’m surprised how much I enjoyed it.) I love it! I didn’t add the cheese, and I didn’t miss it. :)
This is such a delicious recipe! I’ve made it many times, and it always comes out well. It’s also an easy recipe to riff on. I recently added apple (a crisp, tart apple chopped in matchsticks), a can of chickpeas, and swapped pomegranate arils for the cranberries/sour cherries.
Had this for lunch today and it was delicious!
About how many cups is the chopped broccoli in this recipe? First time making it. Thanks.
I would also appreciate this information very much!
One pound of broccoli will yield roughly six cups of chopped raw broccoli (if you were to cook it, it would reduce to about three cups).
Everyone who has tried this has asked me for the recipe and made it themselves – my friend and her husband smash a whole salad between them after a gym session! I prep this every few weeks with a protein for my weekday lunches. It’s delicious and easy and lasts in the fridge for the week. If I’m adding cheese, I add it to each portion on the day. I also chop up the broccoli stem finely and add that for extra crunch, and I’ve found pepitas go well in place of the sunflower seeds. 10 out 10, highly recommend.
Hi Thank You for the Recipe, I will be trying some of them,
Thank you for publishing this informative article on Broccoli Salad. This is an organic and healthy salad. I like your blog and I also prefer Organic Products. Looking forward to more of your posts.
This is our most favorite broccoli salad. Since finding it on your site, we’ve been making it for the last couple years…so thank you!
Love this salad…… I’ve made it a few times now. Today I added celery, and because I only had smoked cheddar, I gave that a go… It added another layer of interest.
Just made this for a community potluck…100% hit! Thanks for the win—and being able to prepare in advance.
This is AMAZING! I made for meal prep and I ended up eating a serving of it after I was done making it!
I substituted chickpeas for cheese to make it vegan!
Thank u!
It is highly time that I thank you for this recipe. I have been making this salad for four years now, it is a favourite with my family, my go to salad when we have guests, and every time I bring it to a potluck, somebody asks me for the recipe. Thank you Kate!
Angela
I left out the cheddar, used maple syrup instead of honey in the dressing, and also added toasted almonds instead of sunflower seeds. Loved it in this lighter version. Crunchy, tasty, healthy, not too sweet. Thank you!
This looks like a wonderful salad potato German salad that i know a sweet lovely lady who makes it all the time it’s one of the best salads i have ever tried so beautiful and delicious
I’m not a raw broccoli or mustard fan but this was delicious and very easy. Used what I had in the house so had to sub vinegar for lemon juice and cranberries for raisins. Will definitely make this again.
Skipped the cheese and the fruit, substituted red bell pepper. 10/10!
The very best Brccoli. Made this for a dinner 3 years ago and it was requisited again this year. The only difference was to leave the nuts out of it so those with alergies wont be ill.
I will bring the nuts in separate containers.
I made this salad last night…Delicious! I plan to make it again; it is a new family favorite.
This recipe is so good! We didn’t add cheese and used slivered almonds. Everyone at Mother’s Day dinner went back for seconds and asked for the recipe. I enjoyed that it wasn’t full of mayonnaise but a fresh, healthy and tasty side dish.
Hi Michelle, thanks so much for sharing! I’m glad everyone at your Mother’s Day dinner enjoyed it.
I love this! We have a bumper crop of purple broccoli almost all ready to harvest at once ( because ALL my husband’s seedlings are thriving in the garden), so trying to find new ways to use it. I made a few minor changes from the recipe, using what I had on hand–pepitas instead of sunflower seeds, quick pickled red onion left over from another recipe, white balsamic vinegar instead of apple cider. I think this would work well with a combination of kale ( my Russian red kale is thriving, too) and broccoli.
A brief update– after a few very hot, humid days when our remaining broccoli heads look ready to bolt, my husband picked the remaining 4 and asked for this salad, again. “I could eat this every day!”.
Another update– made with our last 2 bunches of broccoli and added a chopped kohlrabi, also. There’s always odds and ends left from the garden. Our thinner stems of homegrown broccoli needed no peeling, so prep was much faster. Chopped and added the tender broccoli leaves, and added some garlic chives.
Have made this many times & everyone loves it. We love salads without mayo, they are much lighter & easy to take to a pot luck where it might be unrefrigerated for a time. Without the cheese it’s perfect for my vegan friends. I was unaware a raw broccoli salad could be so good. There’s almost no waste since the stems can be included. Thank you for a tremendous salad!