The Best Broccoli Salad Around

I know using words like “best” or “incredible” should be used carefully, but I’m not joking around. This broccoli salad could be served to me for every meal for a year and I’d hardly get sick of it. Actually, I take that back. After eating the Italian dish Sunday night, I may have to have some of that added in there too. But anyways…It was incredible and one of the best broccoli salads I have eaten. I also don’t feel bad about talking up this salad because the recipe wasn’t mine. I posted a salad recipe on Friday that had broccoli salad on top. I promised to share the recipe with you guys after Emilee and I made it. Auston’s mom gave us the recipe.

Emilee and I went to the farmer’s market on Saturday after eating breakfast at Zada’s and picked up broccoli especially for this. We also picked up grapes, obviously because they’re delicious.

After cycling class this morning, we stopped at Whole foods, Harris Teeter, and of course, Starbucks for the rest of the ingredients. Starbucks had the most important ingredient next to the broccoli, energy. Without energy there would be no broccoli salad.

For this recipe, you will need…
-*1 large head of broccoli (we used about three small ones), -*1/2 cup of craisins, -*1 small onion, -*2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, -*1/2 cup (or more) of light olive oil mayonnaise, -*1/2 cup sunflower seeds (we used unsalted roasted), -*5 pieces of crisp bacon (we used turkey bacon), -*3 packets stevia (or 1/3 cup sugar)

Turkey bacon will never be as tasty as full fat piggy bacon, but to make it healthy, we wanted to use it. It’s also hard to get turkey bacon as crisp as the real stuff.

-Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
-Microwave the bacon for 2-3 minutes.
-Place the bacon on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until crisp.

While the BACON is BAKIN’ wash the broccoli, remove the stalk and break it into bite sized pieces.

-Remove the bacon from the pan and squeeze the grease out with a paper towel. Removing the grease helps it get crispier. I saved the rest for salads and sandwiches. You only need about five pieces. When the turkey bacon is crisp, cut it up into little bacon bits.

Dice up the onions and add it to the bowl with the broccoli.

In a separate bowl, prepare the dressing. We used a little over a 1/2 cup of mayonnaise. Add the mayonnaise to the mixing bowl.

Instead of sugar, we used stevia. It tastes just as good.

Mix the stevia, mayonnaise, and vinegar together.

Add the sunflower seeds and craisins to the bowl with the broccoli and onions.

Mix all the ingredients together and let the broccoli salad chill in the refrigerator for several hours.

If you have a party or dinner coming up, I highly recommend this recipe. It’s light and tasty! You can make all kinds of substitutions and add different ingredients. You can add cashews, sliced almonds, pumpkin seeds, raisins, etc…just be creative! Also, you could totally swap the broccoli for chicken or tuna and make an awesome chicken/tuna salad!