> Skip to content

Recipe  •  21 April 2023

 

Broccoli salad with crispy bacon, sunflower seeds and cranberries

A tasty and rewarding simple dish.

For a salad that can consistently surprise and delight you, look no further than this simple, unassuming broccoli salad. It may be easy to make, but this salad recipe is loaded with flavor. It’s simultaneously crispy, creamy, sweet, and savory. And did I mention bacon is involved? The mayonnaise-based dressing ties everything together, and I “up” the creaminess factor by adding a little yogurt. It adds just the right sweetness and tang.

serves: 6

Ingredients

  • 8 slices bacon
  • 1 large head of broccoli, florets sliced into bite-size pieces
  • ⅓ cup (43g) diced red onion
  • ½ cup (60g) dried unsweetened cranberries
  • ½ cup (62g) shelled raw sunflower seeds
  • ¼ cup (28g) crumbled goat cheese
  • ½ cup (110g) mayonnaise
  • ¼ cup (57g) plain Greek yogurt (dairy or dairy-free)

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Arrange the bacon slices on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, until crispy. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel–lined plate to drain and cool.

  2. While the bacon is cooking, in a large mixing bowl, combine the broccoli florets, red onion, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, and goat cheese.

  3. In a small bowl, stir together the mayonnaise and yogurt. Add the bacon and dressing to the mixing bowl and toss to combine.


Storage

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 4 to 5 days.

Dietary Swaps

The beauty of a broccoli salad is that it’s easy to customize. Bacon, dried fruit, cheese, and seeds are usually involved, and you can tweak each of these to your dietary preference. Feel free to use raisins instead of dried cranberries or slivered almonds instead of sunflower seeds. You could also make this salad dairyfree by eliminating the goat cheese and using a nondairy yogurt. Feel free to remove the bacon to make this dish vegetarian.

Helpful Tip

If you’re wondering what to do with the broccoli stem, spiralize it! You can spiralize it just as you would a zucchini. It’s delicious!

Serving size: 2 cups (203g)
Calories: 352
Fat: 27g
Saturated fat: 6g
Carbs: 18g
Fiber: 6g
Sugar: 5g
Protein: 11g
Cholesterol: 27mg
Sodium: 299mg

Feature Title

Downshiftology Healthy Meal Prep

Discover an easier, more balanced way to meal prep as you whip up 100 fresh and healthy dishes that happen to be gluten-free, from the creator of the popular blog and YouTube channel Downshiftology.

Read more

More features

See all recipes
Recipe
Lemon oregano roasted chicken legs and potatoes

A classic, hearty and simple meal.

Recipe
Orange pistachio overnight oats

A healthy breakfast you can tailor to your own tastes.

Article
Eat like a Matildas player with these 5 easy recipes

Discover a few dishes Matildas players love and learn how to make them yourself.

Recipe
Whipped yoghurt with roasted strawberries and peanut fudge sauce

The lime-roasted strawberries and peanut fudge sauce are essentially a refined combination of peanut butter and jelly and boy do they sing together!

Recipe
Jerk chicken with coleslaw

Steph was a Jamaican chef Helen worked with many years ago in Melbourne.

Recipe
Butterbean mash with Muhammara

Muhammara is a spicy Levantine dip made from red peppers and walnuts.

Recipe
Breakfast potatoes

This is a combination of two great Spanish potato dishes: patatas a lo pobre (poor man’s potatoes) and huevos rotos (broken eggs).

Recipe
Roast chicken and cabbage with soy butter

There are many ways to make cabbage delicious but it’s hard to improve on butter.

Recipe
Mango barfi bites

From the heart of Indian sweet culture, these combine tropical mango pulp with desiccated coconut.

Recipe
Crostata ai Frutti di Bosco (Berry Tart)

This tart is the kind of dessert you'll spot behind glass in a typical Italian Pasticceria

Recipe
Tofu katsu makhani

This dish is a celebration of textures: crunchy tofu cutlet, creamy Makhani Sauce (page 30), and refreshingly crisp cabbage.

Recipe
Drunken noodles (with any meat)

Easy to make and versatile, these stir-fried noodles suggest inebriation to the extent that after a night of drinking, many people crave noodles like these-salty garlicky, spicy, and herbaceous.

Looking for more recipes?

See all recipes
penguin pop image
penguin pop image