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Amish Broccoli Salad (With Bacon)

5 from 1 vote

on Mar 08, 2021, Updated Aug 25, 2023

This crunchy and creamy Amish Broccoli Salad with Bacon is easy to make and comes together quickly. It’s a great make-ahead salad, perfect for get-togethers, potlucks, and picnics.

If you love to binge on a delicious salad, try some of my favorites: Healthy Broccoli Apple Salad, Watermelon Feta Salad, Amish Potato Salad, and Gochujang Cucumber Salad.

Creamy Amish broccoli salad served in a bowl.

About Amish Broccoli Salad

Amish Broccoli Salad is a creamy summer salad with broccoli and cauliflower florets coated with a creamy mayonnaise and sour cream dressing.

This easy recipe is a great way to include broccoli crowns in your diet.

For the uninitiated, Amish cuisine is characterized by its simplicity, hearty flavors, and use of local ingredients. It is often based on recipes from Amish families and influenced by German and Pennsylvania Dutch cooking.

This Amish broccoli and cauliflower salad is crunchy, easy, low-carb, and customizable.

This salad can be made beforehand as it holds well for hours. It is excellent for potlucks, get-togethers, and picnics or as a side dish for barbecues and weekend brunches.

Ingredients

For The Salad

To make this creamy broccoli salad, you will need bacon, broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, dried cranberries, toasted walnuts, sharp cheddar cheese, and red onion.

Try to use fresh broccoli florets and cauliflower florets. The frozen ones don’t taste that great in this recipe.

Crispy bacon adds a lovely crunchy bite and a delicious flavor to the salad.

You can cube the cheese, but I like it shredded as it blends well with the dressing.

You can replace dried cranberries with golden raisins or craisins.

For The Dressing

You will need mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice, powdered sugar, and salt to make the dressing.

Use low-carb powdered sugar if making a KETO Amish broccoli cauliflower salad recipe.

How to Make Amish Broccoli Salad

Cook The Bacon

Cut 4 oz bacon into 1-inch pieces and add the pieces to a nonstick pan.

Cook on medium heat until crisp (5-6 minutes). Keep tossing them frequently while cooking.

Transfer the crispy bacon to a plate and reserve the bacon fat for the dressing.

Blanch The Broccoli And Cauliflower

Cut 5 oz cauliflower and 8 oz broccoli into small bite-sized florets.

Fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil over high heat.

Once the water comes to a rolling boil, add the broccoli and cauliflower to the pot and cook for 1 minute.

Broccoli and cauliflower blanching in hot water.

Drain the broccoli and cauliflower and transfer them to a bowl filled with ice-cold water to stop cooking.

Drain after a minute and set aside.

Make The Salad

Stir together the following ingredients in a medium bowl.

½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon powdered sugar
½ teaspoon salt
leftover bacon fat

Mix the following ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

cooked and cooled broccoli and cauliflower florets
diced red bell pepper
¼ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup chopped toasted walnuts
2 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese
¼ cup chopped red onion
crisp bacon

Pour the creamy dressing over the salad and toss well.

Salad ingredients and dressing ingredients added to a large bowl.

Chill the salad for at least an hour to let the veggies soak up the dressing before serving. Serve chilled.

Frequently Asked Questions

What else can I add to Amish broccoli and cauliflower salad?

This salad is very customizable. Use the ingredients you like and skip the ones you don’t.
Make the salad with only broccoli or only cauliflower if you don’t like either of the two.
Yogurt – Make the salad healthier by replacing mayonnaise with Greek yogurt. You can also use a combination of mayo and yogurt. Mayonnaise can be replaced with sour cream or Miracle Whip as well.
Seeds and Nuts – Besides toasted walnuts, you can add pine nuts, almonds, pistachios, sunflower, or pumpkin seeds.
Cheese – You can substitute sharp cheddar cheese with parmesan, cheddar, or blue cheese. Feta and goat’s cheese will also be great.
Sesame Oil – Add a little sesame oil to the dressing. It gives a delightful flavor to the salad.
Variety of cauliflower – You can use different types of cauliflower and add some colors to the salad.
Avocado Mayo – To make this salad paleo, blend avocado, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, water, and olive oil. Use it as a dressing in place of regular mayo.
Grapes – Add halved red or green grapes. They pair well with other ingredients in this salad.
Macaroni – You can replace broccoli and cauliflower with cooked macaroni and make Amish macaroni salad.