Broccoli Salad with Bacon, Cheddar & Almonds
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This make-ahead broccoli salad with smoky bacon, sharp Cheddar and crunchy almonds is ideal for a potluck or BBQ.
This broccoli salad recipe was given to me by one of my oldest and dearest friends, Kelly Santoro. I’m not usually a fan of raw broccoli but Kelly insisted it was delicious, and she was right. The raw broccoli florets soak up the creamy mayo, vinegar, and honey-based dressing – softening a bit but remaining crisp – and are made even tastier with the addition of smoky bacon, shredded sharp Cheddar, and crunchy sliced almonds. One reviewer described the salad as “one big bowl of crunchy yumminess.” The salad holds up well and is best prepared a few hours ahead of time, making it perfect for a potluck or BBQ. Make it in advance and check it off your to-do list!
What You’ll Need To Make Broccoli Salad with Bacon, Cheddar & Almonds
- Since the broccoli isn’t cooked and plays the starring role in the salad, be sure to get the freshest broccoli possible. Look for bright green, firm crowns with compact clusters of florets. Broccoli crowns are trimmed just under the broccoli head, whereas broccoli bunches have stalks that are about 5 inches in length. If you can only find bunches, be sure to buy a bit extra to account for the weight of the stalk. After washing the broccoli, dry it thoroughly so it doesn’t water down the dressing.
- Thick-cut bacon is ideal for this salad; it will hold up better in the dressing and not get lost in the salad.
- For the cheese, I recommend buying a block and shredding it yourself. Pre-shredded cheese is treated with an anti-caking agent and is not as high quality. In a salad, this makes a big difference.
- For the mayonnaise, use a high-quality brand, such as Hellmann’s or Duke’s. (Many brands of mayonnaise, especially organic ones, have “off” flavors that will alter the taste of the salad.)
How to Make Broccoli Salad with Bacon, Cheddar & Almonds
Step 1: Cook the Bacon
In a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, fry the bacon until crisp, about 8 minutes. Drain on paper towels.
Step 2: Temper the Red Onion
To temper the bite of the raw onion, soak it in ice water for 10 minutes, then drain. This step is optional, but if you’re a raw onion-phobe like me, I recommend it.
Step 3: Make the Dressing
In a bowl large enough to hold all of the salad ingredients, combine the mayonnaise, honey, cider vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Whisk well to combine.
Step 4: Toss the Salad
Add the broccoli florets, Cheddar, and red onions to the dressing.
Mix well. This can be done up to 3 hours ahead of time (in fact, all the better to allow the broccoli to soak up the flavor).
Right before serving, add the bacon and almonds.
Toss well, then taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, if necessary.
Transfer the salad to a serving platter or bowl and enjoy. Leftover broccoli salad can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
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Broccoli Salad with Bacon, Cheddar & Almonds
This make-ahead broccoli salad with smoky bacon, sharp Cheddar and crunchy almonds is ideal for a potluck or BBQ.
Ingredients
- 6 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into ½-in pieces
- ⅓ cup chopped red onion
- 1 cup mayonnaise, best quality such as Hellmann's or Duke's
- 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons honey or sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 9 cups broccoli florets, cut into small, bite-sized pieces (you'll need about 2 pounds of broccoli crowns)
- 1 cup lightly packed shredded sharp cheddar cheese, best quality
- ½ cup sliced almonds
Instructions
- Set a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring frequently, until crisp, about 8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Set aside.
- Place the onions in a small bowl of ice water for ten minutes. Drain, then blot the onions dry with a paper towel. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl (big enough to hold all of the salad ingredients), whisk together the mayonnaise, cider vinegar, honey (or sugar), salt, and pepper.
- Add the broccoli, Cheddar, and red onions to the dressing; toss to coat evenly. Cover and refrigerate the salad until ready to serve. (The salad can be made up to this point up to 3 hours ahead of time.)
- Before serving, set aside some of the bacon and almonds to use as a garnish for the salad. Add the remaining bacon and almonds to the salad and toss to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, if necessary. Transfer the salad to a bowl or serving platter and garnish with the reserved bacon and almonds. Serve cold or room temperature. Leftover salad can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Note: Broccoli crowns are trimmed just under the broccoli head, whereas broccoli bunches have stalks that are about 5 inches in length. If you can only find bunches, be sure to buy a bit extra to account for the weight of the stalk.
Nutrition Information
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- Calories: 444
- Fat: 39 g
- Saturated fat: 9 g
- Carbohydrates: 16 g
- Sugar: 9 g
- Fiber: 4 g
- Protein: 10 g
- Sodium: 445 mg
- Cholesterol: 40 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Gluten-Free Adaptable Note
To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you're following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.
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Comments
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This is a holiday favorite. It adds a bright light to our traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We add a cup or raisins or dried cranberries. Thanks, Jen.
This is a family favorite and a Thanksgiving dinner staple. I always add a cup of raisins or dried cranberries for a festive look.
Great recipe using ingredients on hand! Got broccoli in my local veg delivery. My son loves raw broccoli, but I’m not much of a fan. He kept begging me to taste this broccoli and he was right! It had much less bitterness than expected. I decided to make this salad as it looked like something we’d all like and I already had all the ingredients on hand. It did not disappoint!
Stunning salad!
I’m British but my Mother remarried and lived in TX, now in TB- this salad takes me back to bbq sides & buffet salads of the South!
My gf & her bro never had raw broccoli before! They are utterly converted…
I love all of your recipes!!!!! Raw broccoli usually doesn’t suit my stomach. Do you think this recipe could work if I steamed the broccoli?
Thank you so much. Happy Holidays!!
Sure, I think that would work. Please LMK how it turns out!
Perfection! I make it all the time now and it’s a great hit !
All your recipes are fabulous !
Always a hit when I serve it!
This salad has become a staple in our household. Easy and delicious! I substitute turkey bacon for pork but otherwise make as directed. Perfect! Thank you!
I have made this salad several times now. It is amazing!! Each time I have made it and tell my husband what we are having he says eww broccoli- and I have to remind him that he loves it!! He doesn’t like cooked broccoli but loves it raw. I made this for July 4 picnic and it was devoured!!
Jen I’ve made dozens of your recipes and they are always a hit. Tried this bacon salad for the first time for a group dinner last night. Always a little nerve wracking to try a new recipe for friends… but as usual it was just awesome and I got multiple requests for the recipe afterwards. I absolutely LOVE your cooking style, approach, and recipes. Even the way you lay things out in your blog is super user friendly and you don’t over do it on ads. GREAT JOB and keep it up! THANK YOU!!!!
So glad you like the recipes and the blog — thanks for the kind words! 🙂
Hi Jenn – If I omit the bacon to be vegetarian friendly, do you have a substitute recommendation? Or will this still be just as tasty?
Hi Kelli, the bacon does add a lot of flavor, but I think you could add more cheese for more flavor and saltiness. Please LMK how it turns out!
I have alpha gal (cannot eat any mammal), so no pork bacon. Also, we have a vegetarian daughter-in-law. I am making this with a good portion of smoked cheddar cheese (about half smoked and half not). We’ll see how it goes! Hoping it will be a nice sub for the bacon.
I made this yesterday. Really good! I will make this again!
So good!
All I could find was raw slivered almond. Should I roast them? I plan on making tomorrow. Thank you, love your recipes!!!!
Hi Joan, you certainly don’t need to toast them, but you can if you’d like. Hope you enjoy!
This is the best.. I will make this over and over again. I did cook my onions, not a fan of raw, just chucked them in with the bacon and I steamed the broccoli. This melted the dressing as I didnt let it cool long enough. Lessons learned. Thank you
Awesome broccoli salad. Followed the recipe almost exactly as written Ended up making a little more dressing bc I wanted mine to be a touch creamier, and also added dried cranberries. In the dressing I cut back on the honey a tiny bit bc of the added cranberries. Everyone loved it! Thanks Jen!
Could the bacon be replaced with fried tofu?
Sure, Yael, that should work!
Hi Jenn, with most recipes I find, the quantities are too much for 2 people. In the past, I have tried to reduce all the ingredients by 1/2 but most of the time it does work out quite right.
How would you suggest adjusting the quantities on the ingredients in recipes and this one in particular?
We love your website and all of your recipes. So easy to follow, simple, and tasty.
Thank you.
Hi LaDonna, I know what you mean but for salads like this one, it should work to just cut all of the ingredients in half. The only thing you may need to adjust is the cooking time for the bacon; it won’t take as long. Hope that helps!
This is my go-to salad recipe. I literally make this for lunch every weekend. I’m trying to eat low carb/Keto and on a budget so I modified the recipe just slightly. I use one cup sour cream instead of mayo (because high quality mayo made with avocado oil can get pricey) and I use monk fruit sweetener instead of honey (to keep things Keto friendly). Note: I found a 2 lb bag of broccoli florets is only a few bucks at Sam’s club. Enjoy!!!
Really good, love the bacon & cheddar, I wouldn’t leave it out. I didn’t have almond slices so I added pumpkin seeds. I found the taste of the red onion a bit sharp, I might add less next time or soak them in cold water first. The salads are really really good on this site! It’s so wonderful to have so many options to choose from so you don’t get into a rut.
All hail queen Jenn!!! I made this today and can’t wait to eat what’s left of it tomorrow. I can’t believe it took me this long to find an amazing broccoli recipe, considering that I eat it almost every day. I skipped the almonds and onions (not of either food in their raw form) but it still turned out great. Thanks Jenn, for another winner.
Can you make the dressing ahead of time?
Sure, I think it would refrigerate nicely for a few days.
I substituted walnuts for the almonds. I took this to a party last night and now due to requests I must share the recipe with six people. Everybody loved it!
Loved this enough that we’ve made it twice in one week. We don’t care for raw onions, so we grated part of a shallot into the dressing to get the flavor without pieces of onion. Just perfect and toasted pumpkin seeds are a win.
I love this recipe, I didn’t have cider vinegar so I just used white and it was still delicious!
I tried to make this salad a bit healthier and used greek yogurt to replace the mayo; I added a couple of tablespoons of orange juice to the dressing and also about 1/2 tsp of celery salt. I omitted the cheese and bacon and added orange segments and sunflower seeds. Very yummy! Thank you for the baseline Jenn, your website is my go to for no fail recipes!
Hello. can frozen broccoli florets and bacon bits be used in this recipe? Thank you.
While I think both could be used, I think the result would definitely be better with fresh broccoli and real bacon. If you do use frozen broccoli, make sure to drain it when defrosting to get rid of any excess water.
Yummy. This was my first try at broccoli salad. I liked that your recipe seemed simple enough to follow. Thanks for sharing. It was delish.
I added sunflower seeds and dried cranberries to this, it’s awesome both ways!
This recipe is amazing! However, I cannot and will not understand why people use miracle whip instead using mayonnaise! They are completely different! Look at the ingredients in miracle whip and in mayo they are not the same!
Tried it and loved it! I would travel over 15 miles to the Amish market to get this salad and sometimes they were out? soI went online to find the recipe and tried this one. Five stars??!!!!
This salad is so delicious. I added 1 1/2 tsp each of toasted ground coriander and toasted ground cumin to the dressing to give it another element of flavour. This one is going into my personal favorites.
Could you replace the mayo with plain greek yogurt? My house us trying to eat as clean as possible
Hi Kim, I would use whole milk Greek yogurt and cut back on the vinegar since the yogurt is already tangy. You can add more if need be.
Hi Kim
I’ve used plain full fat greek yogurt and added a couple of tablespoons of orange juice, and orange segments to the salad. Very yummy.
This salad is delicious! The only change I made was to use regular white vinegar for a tangier flavor. I like to make this to go with chicken or turkey.
This was an amazing recipe! Made it tonight and not only did I LOVE it, but my hubby LOVED it as well, and he is very picky, and sometimes a broccoli hater — He told me that I had to make it again it was so good! Thanks for another great broccoli recipe to add to my list! 🙂
What happened to the recipe?? Absolutely loved it and had it saved in my bookmarks but now it;s gone 🙁
Hi Macha, Sorry about that…it’s back up!
Made this exactly by the recipe and it was really bland. Don’t know what was missing. I’ve made several of the salads from this site and they have been wonderful and creative but not this one. Maybe needed about twice the dressing plus something for zing.
Hi Linda, So sorry you found the salad to be bland. I’ve temporarily removed it from the site for re-testing. Thank you so much for your feedback.
It’s good to discover new recipes.Thanks
we use miracle whip instead of mayo didn’t have almond so we used walnuts and we added fresh sliced mushrooms
This is my hubby’s favorite salad! He LOVES broccoli and get so tired of it steamed. Another great “method” recipe. So easy to substitute: I have tried different sweeteners, vinegars, nuts and dried fruit. However, the BACON is a must 😉 Also, we like to boil the broccoli for 3 to 5 minutes to make it a little softer – just until it is bright green.
We sub grapes for almonds, a little less mayo and use shredded almond cheese in mozzarella flavor to keep it lactose free. Sunflower seeds also sound like a great addition. Red onion also only added for the adults as the toddler’s aren’t great fans of onions. Best thing about the recipe is it’s easy to quickly adjust for various audiences!
I just made this for dinner this evening. I had been looking for a good broccoli salad recipe, and THIS is perfect — just what I wanted, the perfect combination of ingredients. I especially like putting the bacon and almonds in just before serving. This has a nice texture and wonderful taste. It is now my default broccoli salad recipe. Thanks!
The perfect side dish and picnic gathering!
Jenn, it appears from the photos that you must use a white sharp cheddar. Is that correct? Any particular brand you like?
Hi Glinda, Cabot would be good here. Hope you enjoy!
Delicious! Just made it a few weeks ago for a pot luck luncheon. Thanks for posting!
Should I blanch the broccoli?
No, it’s not necessary here. Hope you enjoy!
This salad is AWESOME. I made this over the summer for a pot luck, and it was one of the first things gone.
I do a low-fat version. Had never had it with the cheddar before this post. People always love it and go back for seconds!
Excellent! Makes me think of a Spring picnic!
My husband despises mayo, could you sub it for sour cream?
Great recipe – it has all my favorite foods compiled into one! Made something similar not too long ago for a family gathering and they loved it. Also, I agree with Amy, add some raisins in there for some extra sweetness!
Take care,
–Chelsey
This recipe is great with golden raisins!
I do one Broccoli Grape Salad, same basic recipe omit the bacon, cheese. Change almonds to sunflowerseeds and add 2 cups of seedles red grapes cut in half.
Very similar to another salad that I have made that is ALWAYS a big hit at parties… has a similar dressing but uses sugar instead of the honey, and instead of the almonds, uses sunflower seeds. Even the non-broccoli eaters LOVE it!