A delicious, simple, and quick lemon poppyseed broccoli salad. Broccoli, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, sharp cheddar cheese, and sliced almonds with a delicious creamy lemon poppyseed dressing.
This salad has accompanied dinner every single night this week. It’s THAT good. Coupled with the fact that I bought enough broccoli to feed a small army. You know, when it goes on sale, you gotta stock up right?!
Each night I’ve made slight adjustments and am so excited about the salad! It’s has quickly become a favorite in my home.
It’s not quite summer yet (okay we’re in the throes of a FREEZING winter ?), but I’m telling you now, you are going to want this recipe come summer potluck and BBQ time! It’s perfect for any dinner party that you need to bring a crowd-pleasing salad too, but summer this recipe may just become your go-to salad!
It comes together super quick and isn’t too revolutionarily different from the many broccoli salads that float around the inter-webs. It was inspired by a pretty similar salad we just had at an open-house/party/function (???) this past Sunday. The broccoli salad that whoever brought (I never actually found out WHO made it!) to the party was a huge hit! It had the traditional sweet mayo dressing and was loaded with red onions, bacon, raisins, cheese, and of course lots of BROCCOLI.
Since the hubs is not a fan of onions at all, and I’m not a fan of regular raisins in any salad, I added some extra nuts (almonds), threw in some sunflower seeds, and used dried cranberries. ?
And of course, the cheese. Just little cubes of delicious sharp cheddar!
The dressing is also pretty close to your traditional broccoli salad — mayo, vinegar, and some sugar. I decided to put a little bit of freshness by adding the lemon. It is not overpoweringly lemon at all. In fact, it’s barely a hint of lemon with only 1 tablespoon in the whole dressing. That’s the most I could add without it getting too watery. To enhance that lemon just a bit more, I added some finely grated zest.
I also played around with the vinegars added and red wine vinegar was the winner! It’s delicious with the lemon and mayo. And finally, the sugar. You can definitely increase or decrease the sugar based on personal preference. From a google search I saw some salads call for an entire 1/2 cup ?. This dressing only calls for 2 tablespoons, so if you want a super sweet salad, increase it from there!
And if you want the dressing to really stick to the salad, make sure to use full-fat mayo. That and, make sure the broccoli is WELL dried. Otherwise it makes the whole salad kind of blahh.
And finally, the last thing I found that brought this salad from wow to WOW, was a quick blanch of the broccoli. First off, make sure the broccoli is cut into really small pieces. This makes the salad taste better as you (1) get a little bit of everything in each bite (instead of a huge “broccoli bite”) and (2) the dressing is able to adhere better to the broccoli.
Next, boil a pot of water with about 1 tablespoon of salt. As soon as the water is boiling, pour in the small pieces of broccoli. Immediately start counting to 30 and as soon as you get to thirty, remove the broccoli, and drain it. Pour the broccoli into a prepared ice bath. (I just fill up a bowl with cold water and a few cupfuls of ice.
Allow the broccoli to sit in the ice water until completely cooled off and then remove with a slotted spoon. If you have a salad spinner, you can put the broccoli in there to dry. Otherwise, squeeze the excess water with a napkin or paper towel until the broccoli is 100% dry.
- 4 heads fresh broccoli ~4 & 1/2 - 5 cups
- 3/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 1/2 cup toasted and salted sunflower seeds
- 1 package (8 ounces) sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 cup full-fat mayo
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 2-4 tablespoons sugar depending on sweetness preference
- 1 large lemon
- 1/2 tablespoon poppyseeds
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Remove the stems from the broccoli and cut into very small pieces. IF you want to blanch the broccoli follow the next few steps. If you're short on time or don't mind raw broccoli you can skip blanching.
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Fill up a bowl with very cold water and a few cupfuls of ice. Bring a pot of water to boiling point. Add in a heaping tablespoon of salt.
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Pour the broccoli into the boiling water and count to 30. As soon as you get to 30 drain the broccoli and pour the broccoli into your prepared ice/water bath.
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Allow the broccoli to sit in the cold water until completely cooled. Then remove with a slotted spoon to a salad spinner or bowl.
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Make sure the broccoli is 100% dried before tossing it with anything else (especially the dressing). I like to use a salad spinner and then let it sit out for a while. If it's any bit wet, it becomes too watery.
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Add the cranberries, almonds (toast if desired), sunflower seeds, and sharp cheddar cheese (that has been cut into very small cubes) to the bowl with the broccoli.
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In a bowl, whisk together the mayo, red wine vinegar, sugar, zest of one lemon, and about 1 tablespoon lemon juice.
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Add some salt and pepper, taste, and add more sugar (1-2 more tablespoons) or lemon to personal preference (not too much lemon or the dressing becomes too watery)
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Whisk in the poppyseeds.
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Toss the dressing with the salad and place in the fridge to marinate for 15-30 minutes.
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Toss again and enjoy!
More delicious salads:
Roasted Sweet Potato and Wild Rice Salad
Frog eye salad
Easy Apple Pistachio Quinoa Salad
Kelly says
Oh goodness, it’s been freezing here too but that never stops me from enjoying a good salad! This one is gorgeous, Chelsea! I love the broccoli and cranberry combo!
chelseamessyapron says
Thank you so much Kelly! 🙂
Taylor @ Food Faith Fitness says
My deliciousness…. GET IN MY MOUTH NOW! This looks so good I can’t even contain myself. Love how colorful and full this salad is. Seriously, I love everything that you put in this and I love their flavors put together. Killing in 🙂
chelseamessyapron says
Thanks so much Taylor! 🙂
Kelley says
Love, love, love this gorgeous salad!!
chelseamessyapron says
Thank you Kelley! 🙂
Olivia - Primavera Kitchen says
Wow… what a beautiful and flavourful salad, Chelsea. I also love the dressing. It is super simple to make 😉
chelseamessyapron says
Thank you Olivia! 🙂
Medha @ Whisk & Shout says
Love the cranberries and the poppyseed 🙂 Pinning!
Cathleen @ A Taste Of Madness says
Your tips for making this salad are so useful. I never get my salad quite dry enough, and wonder what went wrong. This salad is so gorgeous!!
Rach's Recipes says
I tried this with pignoli’s and jack cheese which I already had in my refrigerator and it worked great.
chelseamessyapron says
That sounds delicious! Glad you enjoyed this salad! Thanks for the comment! 🙂
Lindsay says
Ooooooo I need this. Everybody needs this.
chelseamessyapron says
Haha yes!! 😉 Thank you Lindsay!
Jessie | Kitschen Cat says
Gorgeous!
chelseamessyapron says
Thank you Jessie! 🙂
Jessica @ Jessica in the Kitchen says
What a beautiful salad! I love adding dried cranberries to my salad and love the combo going on here!
Elysia | Haute & Healthy Living says
Wow this broccoli salad looks AMAZING!!! I love the colours and the flavours sound so delicious! I could totally eat that whole bowl right now!!
chelseamessyapron says
Thank you so much Elysia! 🙂
Cheryl K says
That salad looks like Spring! And I’m sure ready for Spring…this will be on my menu this week, for sure. Thank you.
P.S. I’m giving it 5 stars even though I have tasted it, yet. I just know it will be worthy.
chelseamessyapron says
Haha!! Thank you so much Cheryl! Hope you love it 🙂
Alison says
Oh my word, this looks absolutely delicious! I LOVE traditional broccoli salad, but I definitely need to give this a try! Maybe for Easter dinner? 🙂
chelseamessyapron says
Yes! That would be fantastic! Hope you love it 🙂
Mel says
Can this be made the night before??
I’m hoping so, maybe I’ll chop everything and add the dressing in the morning.
chelseamessyapron says
Absolutely can be prepped ahead! Just make sure to add the dressing before serving and not too early 🙂
Vesta says
Made this last night and my grand daughter that HATES broccoli LOVED it! So DELICIOUS!
chelseamessyapron says
What a huge win!!! 🙂 I’m so, so happy to hear that! Thank you Vesta!
Kristen says
Made this for the first time today. Easy and delicious! Definitely a keeper 🙂 Thank you! 🙂
chelseamessyapron says
So happy to hear that!! Thank you so much! 🙂
chelseamessyapron says
So glad to hear that!! 🙂 Thank you for the comment!
Severien says
I am definitely going to try this for my kids, very soon, this looks so yummy and so beautiful!
chelseamessyapron says
Thank you so much! I hope you all enjoy 🙂
Deb says
Can’t wait to try this salad! Two questions: what kind of onion did you omit and with the dressing already mixed how many days will it keep?
Thank you
chelseamessyapron says
There isn’t onion in this recipe, but the recipe that inspired this one did have red onion! This one is quite different so I’m not sure how onion would taste in it. And I don’t like this recipe sitting with the dressing after one day, but that’s personal preference 🙂
Diane Hopper says
I just made this salad for a Father’s Day BBQ. I have to say, I have made a lot of variations of Broccoli Salad and this was by far the best. The lemon gives it such a refreshing flavor! The only change I made was adding about 10 strips of crumbled crispy bacon… because BACON! 😀 Thanks for such a great recipe!
chelseamessyapron says
Oh, this makes my day!! I’m so thrilled to hear this one was the best! 🙂 And YUM on the bacon addition! Thanks Diane!
Nicholas says
I absolutely despise mayonnaise, so instead I used plain yogurt for the dressing. Huge hit at my work potluck. I always consider it a successful dish when I don’t get to bring any home!
chelseamessyapron says
That’s great!! And so happy that there wasn’t any to bring home 🙂 Thanks for the comment Nicholas!
Catie says
Made this last night for a small family get together, everyone loved it! My husband had thirds! And two people wanted the recipe. Also I was asked to bring it to our big family bbq next month. This recipe is definitely a keeper! Thanks!
chelseamessyapron says
Yay! That is so great to hear! I’m thrilled this has been a hit. Thanks Catie! 🙂
Jess says
I made this today and it’s totally a pin(terest) win!
I made a couple small tweaks…I added 1/2 tsp lemon extract and toasted the almonds. Loved it!!
chelseamessyapron says
I’m so thrilled this salad was a hit for you Jess! Thanks for the comment 🙂