Broccoli Salad With Bacon Recipe (Easy Summer Side Dish)
This broccoli salad with bacon recipe will be the hit of your summer party!
Need a delicious summer side dish?
This broccoli salad with bacon and cheese is a family favorite recipe from my mother-in-law, and it is always the first side dish to disappear at any family BBQ. It’s full of bright flavors and textures that I think your family will love, too!
Hip Tip: Eating low-carb? I made a keto version of this broccoli bacon salad over on Hip2Keto.com.
What an EASY salad to make!
Since you only need six pieces of bacon for this salad recipe, I often will quickly make crispy bacon using the air fryer! Then, just make a simple sweetened mayo dressing and toss all the ingredients together. We like using raisins, but if they don’t sound appealing, you can use grapes or omit altogether. The sunflower seeds add some nice texture to this bacon broccoli salad, too.
Here are a few recipe tips when making this broccoli salad with bacon:
- I love to use the big 3 lb. bag of fresh broccoli found at Costco and typically priced around $5. It makes the salad delicious AND frugal!
- You can even make this salad a day ahead as it keeps well. In fact, the flavors are almost even better after marinating together.
- Add in more vegetables if you’d like. Shredded carrots, diced bell peppers, cauliflower florets, and cherry tomatoes are all yummy add-in ideas!
- Looking to make this recipe vegan? Skip the bacon and shredded cheese and swap in vegan mayo — yum!
Check out how simple it is to put this salad together on YouTube!
Broccoli Salad With Bacon
yield: 6 SERVINGS
prep time: 20 MINUTES
total time: 20 MINUTES
The crunchy broccoli, sweetened dressing, and salty bacon are the perfect combination for this easy and satisfying salad.
Ingredients
- 6 cups of chopped broccoli florets (around 18 oz.)
- 6 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped
- 1 cup real mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1/4 cup sliced red onion
Directions
1
In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and vinegar until it dissolves, about a minute. Then stir in mayonnaise.
2
In a large bowl, mix broccoli florets, chopped bacon, sunflower seeds, raisins, shredded cheddar cheese, and onions.
3
Pour dressing over salad and mix well. Let chill at least 30 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
This broccoli salad with bacon and cheese is always a hit!
I love broccoli salad with bacon because it’s so simple to make, has a great flavor, and always comes out delicious. The crunch of the broccoli with this sweet dressing and savory bacon is so YUM!
I hope your friends and family enjoy it just as much as mine do!
Try our easy summer corn salad recipe next!
I make this but blanch the broccoli for 2-3 minutes; is even better!
I agree, the green will be extra vibrant as well.🙂
Oh interesting thanks!
We make broccoli salad just with broccoli, raisins, pecans, mayo, and sugar. 😃
Oh pecans would be yum!
Hi There, I makes something similar, but I use bacon bits (not real bacon) and omit the cheese so my vegetarian/no dairy kiddo can eat it. It’s very delicious!
Yum! Yes that’s a great tip thanks!
My step mom makes this, but made a keto version and left out the raisins. We all love it!
https://hip2save-com-develop.go-vip.co/hip2keto/recipes/keto-broccoli-bacon-salad/
Yes here’s my keto version on our keto site. It’s so tasty too! 👏👍
So good!
We don’t love mayo so we make homemade honey dijon instead and it’s delicious! When we’re out of raisins we sub dates or chopped up dried mango or apricots – whatever is on hand.
Oh nice – thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the suggestion Susan because i despise mayo. Sounds yummy!
I made a version this during quarantine and realized you can pretty much adjust it with what you have on hand!! Just use this as a base. I didn’t have bacon or sunflower seeds but had pumpkin seeds and it worked great with veganaise and golden raisins. Even my son who hates broccoli was reluctantly saying it was good 😀 Perfect leftovers for lunch too!!
Yes agree so versatile! Great ideas!
Has anyone substituted plain yogurt for the mayonnaise. I’m not a big mayo fan plus this would make it healthier?
That’s a pretty common substitute for mayo dressings, so I would say go for it!
I’ve always made it with coleslaw dressing. If it’s a little tart, I just add a teaspoon of sugar.
I leave out the raisins and use shredded parmesan cheese instead of cheddar. Yum!
This is the best salad, the only difference I do is substitute dried cranberries in place of the raisins. Yummmmmm
Yum I’ve done that too and love either! Thanks for sharing 🤗
Hey love this salad. Have made it for years but we add fresh pineapple! Have used greek yogurt for the dressing many times. I also added some blended cranberries and made the dressing pinkish. One holiday added a little cranberry sauce to the dressing!! Great post!! A sweet little lady, (I think she was 90 yrs old at the time) taught this to me and it brought back sweet memories of her! Thanks.
Oh I love those suggestions – thanks for sharing!
My family also make a version of this that always disappears at summer parties. We do not use the cheese or raisins though. Jus the broccoli, bacon, seeds and onion We use a sweet vinagrette, 1 c. sugar and 1/2 c vinegar mixed with 1 c. oil, spices are 1/2t each dry mustard, paprika, celery seed and salt. Oh my gosh it is so good. The leftovers are amazing the broccoli breaks down in the dressing. The bacon and seeds do get soggy leftover but I still love it.
I know I still love the leftovers too! Yum
I buy broccoli crowns when I catch them on sale. I cut off the stems and put the stems in a sealed plastic bowl, covered with water and refrigerate, each time I steam broccoli for supper. I change out the water every few days and add more stems as we eat the broccoli. Once we have finished all the broccoli, I grate the stems I have saved, and make this salad. I think it’s just as good, maybe better because it is juicier, and we are using something we would otherwise throw away.
Such a smart way to use up some of your broccoli “scraps,” Lisa! 🥦 Thanks for sharing all the details of how you save them too for others to try out! 🤗 Glad you enjoy this recipe!
Yummo Lina Thanks I used Splenda but slightly less than 1/4 cup. Will try my monk fruit next go.
Nice! Yes it’s easy to swap sweeteners here. Enjoy!