This broccoli salad now has everything going for it – taste, a sharp, well-balanced dressing, nuttiness from the seeds, and a slight sweetness from the berries and dressing. I look to cook with seasonal produce as much as I can. Broccoli season spans autumn, winter, and fall, and I love to add this to my meals for its nutritional benefit. So, I constantly look to cook exciting recipes to make this not-so-popular vegetable appealing. Check out some of my recent broccolicious shares – Broccoli Cheddar Soup, Stovetop Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole, Chicken Broccoli Pasta, Broccoli With Garlic Sauce and Airfryer Roasted Broccoli. A tasty and creamy dressing with crisp broccoli fits the bill. This recipe is so easy I could have just mentioned “chop and toss” in the recipe card, and that wouldn’t be a wrong summary apart from the bacon-frying part. If you get chopped veggies and bacon bits from the store, it is just tossing them. You are substituting the bulk of the usually-added mayonnaise with yogurt to make creamy dressings. But if you may, add a couple of spoonfuls of mayo to transform the dressing into a rich and indulgent one. It is optional and not too much, but it makes the dressing delicious. You can make ahead this creamy dressing. Letting the dressing rest allows the ingredient’s flavors to blend, creating a creamy, sharp, tangy, and slightly sweet taste. This dressing stays in the refrigerator for a few days and thus is excellent to make in bulk and use in salads and meat dishes. It involves briefly boiling broccoli in water and then immediately dipping them in ice water. The brief boiling kills enzymes and cleans the vegetable while the ice water stops further cooking, leaving the broccoli fresh, tender, yet crisp. Once the broccoli is completely cooled, drain and pat them dry. At this point, the florets can be used in this salad recipe. You could also freeze or can them immediately. Note – after removing the stem, you can blanch the broccoli florets or the whole broccoli itself. You can then chop the blanched broccoli to florets afterward.
Blanch the broccoli
First, bring a pot of water to a rolling boil to blanch broccoli. Then, add the broccoli or chopped florets and cook them briefly for a minute. After that, remove the vegetables from the boiling water and immediately plunge them into a bowl of ice water. If you have blanched the whole broccoli, you can now chop it into florets.
Cook bacon
The shortcut here is to use store-bought crispy bacon bits. To cook at home, chop the bacon strips using a scissor. On a hot skillet, cook them until they drain fat and become crispy. Keep the fried bacon aside.
Mix everything
Add the chopped broccoli, crisp bacon bits, seeds, and cranberries in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle half of the dressing and keep the rest. Toss everything well. Refrigerate for 30 minutes for the dressing to lightly marinate the broccoli and other veggies. Serve it on a plate with some more dressing drizzled on top. Please do not add the bacon before you store it. Instead, toss the salad with bacon when you intend to serve it. Bacon tastes good when crisp but will get soggy by absorbing the liquid from the dressing.
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