Broccoli Salad with Cranberries and a Honey Yogurt Dressing

A light and fresh broccoli salad coated in a honey yogurt dressing is just what you need for a backyard cook-out or to add to a holiday table. Red onions and dried cranberries add a sweet and savory touch, and of course bacon makes everything tastier. Make it a day ahead and add the dressing an hour before serving.

 

Make a Potluck or Picnic Favorite

Whether you’re hosting a dinner for friends or need something to take to a potluck, picnic or holiday meal, it’s nice to have a salad that’s easy to make, and will stay fresh without getting mushy or watery. Of course it also needs to taste wonderful.

For this old fashioned broccoli salad with cranberries, you’ll blanche the broccoli for just 1 minute to take the edge off and give it a bright green color, then add the rest of the ingredients. You can have an amazing salad in 15 minutes..

The star of the salad is the light and fresh honey yogurt dressing that infuses all the ingredients without being heavy or weighing it down.

Honey adds just a bit of sweetness and the combination of yogurt and mayo, keep it from being too tart.

When cooking for friends, I want to enjoy their company but also have amazing food to serve. I try to plan a menu so that I can do almost everything in advance. I recently had a large group over at the last minute and didn’t want to spend any time in the kitchen cooking, so along with Carnitas that I made in the slow cooker, I served this simple but brilliant salad.  

I prepared it in the morning and just added the dressing an hour before we were ready to eat. The broccoli was crisp and everyone loved the sweetness from the dried cranberries.  You also get a little smoky salty flavor thrown in the mix with bacon and roasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds.

My favorite part of this broccoli bacon salad is the dressing. The combination of sour cream, mayo and honey create a dressing that’s not too tangy or sweet. Most classic broccoli salad recipes have sugar in the dressing but the honey adds so much more flavor.

Not only is this great for potlucks, picnics, lunches or weeknight dinners, but it’s a great addition to a holiday meal where you have a lot of heavy dishes. Having something green and fresh is a great compliment to those creamy sides we all love. You might even get your broccoli haters to give this a try – bacon always helps.

Ingredients You’ll Need for this Easy Broccoli Salad Recipe

Check the recipe card below for all the details.

Just a Couple of Steps

Step 1: Blanche the broccoli florets

Cut or break apart the broccoli into bite-sized pieces. Blanche the broccoli for 1 minute for the perfect texture then place in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Drain and let it air dry or dry with paper towels.

Step 2: Make it tasty

Add the fixings and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Step 3: Make the dressing

Whisk together the dressing ingredients and add it to the salad about an hour before serving.

If you like a creamier salad, just double the dressing.

You’ll love having a dish like this to take when the host asks you to bring a salad.  I hate taking a lettuce based salad, it’s so boring. This will be a crowd pleaser.

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