The Best Broccoli Salad Recipe

Absolutely The Best Broccoli Salad Recipe we’ve ever made! The spin on classic southern broccoli salad is bursting with color and surprise ingredients.

Broccoli Salad is a classic side dish that is a true crowd-pleaser all year long. However, I find we eat it most often in the summer when we are planning picnics and outdoor parties.

The traditional southern blend of tiny broccoli florets, bacon pieces, and dried fruit kissed with a creamy slaw-style dressing has been around for decades.

Some cooks add in seeds, nuts, onions, and other ingredients to provide additional flavor and crunch. I have a few other ingredients I like to throw in to create the perkiest, most intriguing, ahem… The Best Broccoli Salad Recipe, my family has ever eaten.

In addition to broccoli, dried cherries, bacon, red onion, and sunflower kernels, The Best Broccoli Salad Recipe also contains a diced apple, shredded carrots, finely chopped kale, and crushed red pepper to perfectly balance the sweet and heat.

It offers endless crunch, sweet bites of fruit, rich salty bacon and sunflower seeds, and a touch of spice!

Why add kale, one might ask?

I find that finely chopped kale blends perfectly into the broccoli creating little pockets to hold the dressing and other tasty tidbits. It offers more nutritional value to the salad, than just broccoli alone. Yet friends and family members resistant to kale, won’t even know it’s there!

I’m tricky like that.

The Best Broccoli Salad Recipe is a fabulous make-ahead and leftover. The ingredients all hold their texture for up to a week in the fridge. I have been known to stand with the refrigerator door open and eat it straight out of the storage container… For breakfast.

There’s no shame in loving this salad.

Try The Best Broccoli Salad Recipe with:

Grilled Maple Mustard Chicken

Provincial Style Red Potato Salad

Chipotle BBQ Chicken Skewers

Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs

Hawaiian Tune Burgers