Healthy Broccoli Cranberry Almond Salad

If you’ve ever had Whole Foods Broccoli salad you will love our lightened up version. It still has the crunchy broccoli, dried cranberries, slivered almonds, red onion and bacon, but the dressing is much lighter with no added sugar!

With all the summer salads floating around at family and company picnics this summer, you probably think you’re making the healthier choice by picking up the broccoli salad instead of the macaroni salad, right?

But unless you are careful most broccoli salads are drowning in a sugary, creamy based dressing and have about a pound (or more) of bacon in them.

A cup of macaroni salad can have as many as 350 calories and 22 grams of fat !!!!  Did you know that?  ugh … I sure didn’t until I researched it.   The traditional broccoli salad you might find at Whole Foods for example can still be around 250 calories per serving.

I really do like this salad though and wanted to make it a little healthier.  Our recipe uses a combination of whole organic Greek yogurt and mayo to cut back on the calories, fat and GMOs.  We also use honey as a sweetener instead of regular sugar.

Instead of the classic raisins we decided to change things up and add dried cranberries to compliment the red onion and yogurt.

Do you know how stores get their broccoli so bright and green?  They blanch it in boiling water for 1 minute and then quickly submerged it in ice water.   This takes that bitter taste out and turns the broccoli this beautiful green.

It’s nice to have other salads at your dinner table in the summer besides the regular old standbys like macaroni and potato salad.

Give it a try, I think you’ll like it even if broccoli isn’t your favorite vegetable.

If you are making this salad for an event, or even for dinner, it would be best to make it at least the day before.  The longer the broccoli salad sits the more the flavors blend but it also gets SUPER cold !!

If I must say, without bragging, this is a really R-E-A-L-L-Y  good broccoli salad!  😀

Healthy Broccoli Cranberry Almond Salad

A lightened up version of a fun and brightly colored summer broccoli salad with Greek yogurt, mayo, honey as a sweetener, almonds, red onions and dried cranberries.

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 15 minutes
• Yield: 6 Servings 1x

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

FOR THE DRESSING:

• 3 Tablespoons Whole Organic Greek Yogurt (Stonyfield makes one)
• 1/3 Cup Mayonaise
• 1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon Honey
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE SALAD:

• 4 Cups Organic Broccoli Florets (I got mine at Costco)
• 1/4 Cup Organic Red Onion, chopped
• 1/3 Cup Slivered Almonds, (toasted for 3–4 min at 350 if possible)
• 1/3 Cup Dried Cranberries
• 1/4 Cup Unsalted Sunflower Seeds
• 4 center-cut bacon slices, cooked and crumbled

Instructions

1. Chop up the red onion and then place in a small bowl of cold water for 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, combine the ingredients to make the dressing and stir using a whisk and set aside
3. In a larger bowl, combine the ingredients for the salad. Drain the onion and add. Pour the dressing on top
4. Cover and chill at least 1 hour before serving, although overnight is best

Nutrition

• Calories: 154
• Sugar: 9.8 gr
• Sodium: 125 mg
• Fat: 10 gr
• Carbohydrates: 12 gr
• Fiber: 2.3 gr
• Protein: 3.8 gr

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Recipe Adapted from:  Cooking Light Magazine
I used all organic ingredients (when possible) when making this recipe, and hope you do too! 🙂