This crunchy and creamy Amish Broccoli Salad is super easy to make and comes together in under 10 minutes. It’s a great make-ahead salad that is perfect to make for get-togethers, potlucks, and picnics.
If you are someone who loves to binge on a delicious salad, then try some of my other favorites too – Broccoli Apple Salad, Cranberry Chicken Salad, Watermelon Feta Salad, Traditional Greek Salad, Amish Potato Salad, and Cucumber Avocado Salad.
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About This Recipe
Amish Broccoli Salad is a creamy summer salad, where broccoli and cauliflower florets are coated with a creamy dressing of mayonnaise and sour cream. It is crunchy, easy, low carb, and customizable.
It also has crispy bacon, raw onions, bell pepper, and toasted walnuts, which adds a beautiful crunch to the salad. Other ingredients such as cranberries and sharp cheddar cheese, adds a sweet, pungent yet earthy flavor, that makes the salad irresistible.
Last but the most amazing part of this Amish broccoli and cauliflower salad is a cool and creamy dressing, that gives this salad a creamy texture and slightly tangy taste due to the use of lemon juice and sour cream.
This Amish Broccoli Salad can be made ahead of time, as it holds well for hours. It is great to serve for potlucks, get-togethers, picnics, or as a side dish for your barbecue and weekend brunches.
This Amish Broccoli Salad is,
- Creamy + Crunchy
- Low Carb
- Delicious
- Easy to make
- Customizable
Ingredients
For the Salad: To make the salad, you will need bacon, broccoli, cauliflower, bell pepper, cranberries, toasted walnuts, sharp cheddar cheese, and onions.
Bacon is cooked in a pan until it becomes crisp. Crispy bacon adds a great crunchy bite to the salad.
Broccoli and Cauliflower, both are cut into bite florets and then blanched to add to the salad. Most people don’t even cook cauliflower and broccoli before adding in the salad. But as I like a little soft texture, I like to blanch them first.
Sharp cheddar cheese adds a nice tangy and pungent flavor, which makes this salad taste a little different. Cranberries add a nice chewy texture as well as a sweet tangy taste, whereas toasted walnuts add a great crunch.
For Dressing: For the dressing, you will need mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice, powdered, and salt.
Mayonnaise and sour cream add a great creamy texture. If you want to make the salad lighter and healthier, then you can substitute mayonnaise with yogurt or make a combination of mayonnaise and yogurt.
Lemon juice and powdered sugar combined adds a nice sweet tangy taste.
How to make Amish Broccoli Salad?
Dice the bacon into 1-inch pieces and add it to a pan. Cook on medium heat until crisp. It will take 5-6 minutes. Drain on a plate. Use the leftover bacon fat to fry sandwiches or burgers.
While the bacon is frying, prepare the vegetables.
Cut the cauliflower and broccoli and into small bite-size florets. Heat a large pot of water and bring it to a boil. Once the water comes to a rolling boil, add the broccoli and cauliflower to the pot and cook for just 1 minute on high heat. Drain the broccoli and cauliflower and let them cool. Chop the red bell pepper into 0.5 inch cubes.
Add the cooked and cooled broccoli and cauliflower florets, chopped red bell pepper, cranberries, toasted walnuts, shredded sharp cheddar cheese, and chopped onion to a large mixing bowl.
Add the dressing ingredients like ½ cup mayonnaise, ½ cup sour cream, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp powdered sugar and salt to taste in another medium size bowl and mix well.
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well.
Chill the salad for at least an hour before serving.
Variations
Add Yogurt – To make it a little healthy, I sometimes substitute mayonnaise with yogurt or make a combination of mayo and yogurt.
Seeds and Nuts – Apart from toasted walnuts, you can even add pine nuts, almonds, pistachios, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc, and try some variation of this salad.
Cheese – You can substitute sharp cheddar cheese with parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese, blue cheese, etc.
Sesame Oil – You can even add a little sesame oil to the dressing as it adds a pleasant sweet flavor.
Variety of cauliflower – You can try other varieties of cauliflower and add some colors to the salad.
Storage Suggestions
The Amish broccoli cauliflower salad keeps well in the fridge for up to 3 to 4 days in the fridge. Make sure you store it in a clean and dry air-tight container. Mix it well before serving it again.
Serving Suggestions
Amish broccoli cauliflower salad is a great light meal to serve on its own for lunch/dinner. You can also eat it as a snack, whenever the hunger strikes. For meals, you can even serve a soup on the side, to make a filling dinner.
Apart from the above, this salad is perfect for potlucks, get-togethers, picnics, weekend brunch, or even barbecues.
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Recipe Card
Amish Broccoli Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 oz bacon
- 8 oz broccoli
- 5 oz cauliflower
- ½ red bell pepper
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- ¼ cup toasted walnuts
- 2 oz sharp cheddar cheese (shredded)
- ¼ cup chopped onion
For the Dressing:
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp powdered sugar
- salt (to taste)
Instructions
- Dice the bacon into 1-inch pieces and add it to a pan. Cook on medium heat until crisp. It will take 5-6 minutes. Drain on a plate. Use the leftover bacon fat to fry sandwiches or burgers.
- While the bacon is frying, prepare the vegetables.
- Cut the broccoli and cauliflower into small bite-size florets. Heat a large pot of water and bring it to a boil. Once the water comes to a rolling boil, add the broccoli and cauliflower to the pot and cook for just 1 minute on high heat. Drain the broccoli and cauliflower and let them cool. Chop the red bell pepper into 0.5 inch cubes.
- Add the cooked and cooled broccoli and cauliflower florets, chopped red bell pepper, cranberries, toasted walnuts, shredded sharp cheddar cheese, and chopped onion to a large mixing bowl.
- Add the dressing ingredients like ½ cup mayonnaise, ½ cup sour cream, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp powdered sugar, and salt to taste in another medium size bowl and mix well.
- Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well.
- Chill the salad for at least an hour before serving.
Did you make this recipe? Let me know!