A while back, when were still allowed to see other human beings, my mom came over and brought a delicious broccoli salad. Thank you for the inspiration, mom. Now let me get one thing straight – I think raw broccoli is DISGUSTING. I remember watching this guy in college load a huge salad bowl up with raw mushrooms, raw broccoli, and raw cauliflower EVERY SINGLE DAY. It was horrifying. Why would you eat raw broccoli? Or cauliflower? Or mushrooms? Have you ever caramelized mushrooms? Or burnt broccoli in the oven? It’s about 4 billion times better than raw. Eating raw broccoli is like Kevin from the office eating it stem first. It’s just all disgusting. And most broccoli salads out there are made with raw broccoli and I hate it with all my might. But not this broccoli salad. This one is made with broccoli that has been blanched, so it’s slightly tender without being soggy. And it’s not raw, which means it’s not disgusting. You’re welcome.
Speaking of seeing people, how do you feel about the quarantine starting to end? It looks like restaurants here in Denver will begin to open at the end of this month, but I’m not sure I’m really ready to head back out. I’m thinking that I’ll let others be the guinea pigs and I’ll keep my distance at home. I saw all these videos of people at Lake of the Ozarks partying it up over Memorial Day weekend and that sh*t is crazy to me. Not only does drinking alcohol lower your immune system, but then you’re dumb AF and making out with a stranger. Or at least close-talking. I stopped going to bars because I couldn’t stand people talking close enough to my face that they could lick my nose. The last thing I want to know is how dehydrated a strangers mouth is, aka how bad their breath smells. But all these people in the Ozarks are doing it during a PANDEMIC. That’s some crazy shit right there.
Sure, I would love to be able to walk into a restaurant and have a meal or go to my favorite coffee shop to work, but I would also like to live. Or not spread it to a person who won’t live if they catch it. We all gotta do our part, right? Maybe I’m just a crabby ole bitch who doesn’t like drinking or crowds so I can easily judge. But I do like making out. Not with strangers at this point, but I had my time. And I’m very grateful that time wasn’t during a pandemic. How do you feel about crowds at this point? Are you ready to dive in mouth first or are you cool with staying home for the unforeseeable future?
Broccoli Salad with Bacon
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 18 minutes
- Total Time: 28 minutes
- Yield: 5-7 1x
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound bacon
- 24 ounces broccoli florets (~8–10 cups)*
- 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
- 4 carrots, julienned
- 1/3 cup cranberries
- 1/3 cup sliced almonds
- 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
- 1 cup avocado oil mayo
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons poppyseeds
- 3 teaspoons salt**
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper then place then bacon on top. Place in the oven to bake for 15-18 minutes, until crispy. Once cooked through, chop into small pieces.
- Once the bacon begins to cook, place a large pot of water over high heat, cover, and bring to boil. Once boiling, add the broccoli and turn a timer on for 3 minutes. While the broccoli is boiling, add ice and water to a large bowl. Drain the broccoli and immediately put it in the ice water to stop the cooking process. Cool for 3 minutes then drain and pat dry.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the avocado oil mayo, vinegar, honey, and poppyseeds. Add the broccoli along with the chopped bacon, red onion, carrots, cranberries, sliced almonds, and sunflower seeds. Then sprinkle salt and pepper throughout, tossing a bit to coat the entire dish evenly.
- Serve immediately or store in an airtight container for up to 5 days – it just gets more delicious with time!
Notes
*I purchased 2 12-ounce bags of broccoli florets to reduce prep time
**I like a good amount of salt, but you can always alter this to your preference
______________
You May Also Like:
Heirloom Tomato & Watermelon Panzanella Salad
____________
Click Here To Get All My PaleOMG Recipes Into Your Meal Planner With Real Plans!
This post contains some affiliate links and I may be compensated, but all opinions are my own. This compensation helps with expenses to keep this blog up and running! Thank you for all your support!
Another benefit to blanching the broccoli is that it is easier to digest! I gave up broccoli salad for years because raw broccoli gives me horrible indigestion. Then I started blanching my broccoli, and hallelujah, broccoli salad was back in my life!! I’m excited to try your variation.
broccoli is the beeeest!
Excited to try this Juli!
My thoughts are pretty close to urs. I am not so worried about getting it myself but as stuff opens up I come into contact with several people who are high risk via my obligations and the guilt of getting them sick and them not surviving is enough to keep me with a mask on and still mostly at home. P.s. got the masks from your latest four athletics collaboration and love them!
yay!! glad you love the mask!!
Thanks for what looks to be a good recipe. It would be nice if there were not ads in the recipe section. They leave big blank spaces when attempting to print them off. Taking more paper than necessary.
i’ll definitely try to fix that issue with printing. but to keep my site live and to have everything that you see on a regular basis, it costs me anywhere from $5000-$10,000 to keep it looking this way, running correctly, and keeping up with this type of content. to you, i understand that it feels like a site shouldn’t cost any money, but to me – it does. it costs a lot. and ads help pay for all those expenses so i don’t go into debt. i hope that makes sense to you now that you know!
Is there no way to print recipes from your website without the giant blank spaces left by the ads? The resulting printout uses more paper than necessary and is almost unusable. Please help!
i can’t seem to duplicate your experience with printing. when i print, there are no black spaces from the ads. i’ve checked multiple recipe and haven’t had that issue. but i’ll check in with my developer!
If open in safari (on your mobile device) before printing that should eliminate the blank spaces when printing 🙂
My favorite of your salads so far! So fresh, crunchy and creamy! Perfect for summer.
yay!! so glad you liked it!
Broccoli salad has always been one of my favorites … bacon, mayo, duh! This one is not only delicious but it’s so much healthier!! Thanks again Juli for another recipe that gets added to my “go to recipes”!
yayyyyyy! glad you love the recipe Tracy!
This looks amazing! Question: you cook the bacon in the oven. Why do you prefer oven to stove-top for bacon? I have never made bacon in an oven and am a little nervous about it but would love to hear why. Also: blanching broccoli is the only way to fly.
you can cook the bacon any way you prefer, but i like the oven because then i don’t have to deal with the splatter. this recipe shares how to cook bacon in the oven – https://paleomg.com/smoky-candied-bacon/
First, your amazeballs.
Second, whole cranberries or dried cranberries? Sorry 🥴
dried!
LOVE this salad! I typically don’t even like broccoli and I ate this for lunch for an entire week. SO good!
yay!! so glad you love the recipe!
Thanks for posting this in your stories today. I am going to make this over the weekend. I have seen this with raisins and I cannot stand them. I love cranberries though. I never thought of that swap.
hope you like it!