Broccoli Salad Recipe – Veggies Your Kids Will Actually Eat

Heather Dessinger

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broccoli salad

Husband: “This cannot be healthy.”

Daughter: “It is helfee, Daddy!”

Husband: “It tastes too good.”

Munch, munch, munch.

Now, I take exception to the idea that junk food tastes better than real, nutrient dense food. But the fact of the matter is that my husband’s palate was trained on McDonald’s and he may never fully recover from that. That’s why I considered it a near-miracle when both he and Katie devoured a raw broccoli slaw delivered by my friend Whittney after Micah was born. It’s too good to keep a secret, so whip up a batch and enjoy!

broccoli salad recipe
broccoli salad
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4.34 from 6 votes

Whittney’s Broccoli Salad Recipe

Course Salad
Servings 10
Calories 371kcal
Author Mommypotamus

Equipment

  • medium bowl
  • large bowl
  • mixing spoon

Ingredients

  • 6 cups small broccoli florets
  • 1 cup red seedless grapes
  • 1 cup red onion (finely chopped)
  • ½ cup sunflower seeds
  • ¾ cup crisp bacon (crumbled into pieced — pastured if possible)
  • 1 cup mayo (We love our homemade recipe. The trick to getting it thick is to pour the oil in super slow.)
  • 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (raw if possible)
  • 2 tbsp raw honey
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice

Instructions

  • Mix mayonnaise, cheddar, honey and lemon juice in a medium bowl
  • Place broccoli, grapes and onion in a large bowl.
  • Pour in dressing and mix thoroughly.
  • Sprinkle bacon and sunflower seeds over the top and serve.

Nutrition

Calories: 371kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 41mg | Sodium: 448mg | Potassium: 337mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 591IU | Vitamin C: 52mg | Calcium: 202mg | Iron: 1mg

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Bursting with crisp cucumbers, plump tomatoes, creamy avocado, crunchy bell pepper and the all important flavors of feta and kalamata olives, it’s tossed in a super yummy vinaigrette that will wake up your tastebuds for sure.

Mexican Chopped Salad – My kids devour this avocado salad like a pack of adorable wolves . . . maybe yours will like it, too! And if not, I promise you’ll have no trouble finishing it off all by yourself. That might be preferable, actually.

Creamy Kale Salad – This light, lemony kale salad is a surprisingly delicious way to enjoy one of the most nutrient-dense veggies available.

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About HEATHER

Heather is a holistic health educator, herbalist, DIYer, Lyme and mold warrior. Since founding Mommypotamus.com in 2009, Heather has been taking complicated health research and making it easy to understand. She shares tested natural recipes and herbal remedies with millions of naturally minded mamas around the world. 

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53 thoughts on “Broccoli Salad Recipe – Veggies Your Kids Will Actually Eat”

  1. As you know, teen years spent working in fast food with Route 44 Cokes for breakfast have damaged my palate too. But I’m trying! I have learned that I like pretty much anything with bacon on it. I wouldn’t even look at asparagus until I got the crazy idea to add bacon bits and sliced almonds on top. Love it now. Bacon. Bacon. Bacon. Glad you’re sweet family enjoyed this as much as I do!

    Reply
    • i’m sorry to disappoint you, but this is not a “healthy” snack, mayonnaise, cheese and bacon? yes broccoli is good for you, and sunflower seeds do have a small amount of omega 3 fat, but those are all completely countered by the other very high fat ingredients… red onion has very little nutritional value and grapes are mostly sugar… though there are more vitamins in this than a big mac, i doubt the fat content is much better

      Reply
      • I couldn’t disagree more! I make my own mayo with wholesome fats (olive oil and pastured eggs) and the cheese is of the highest quality (raw from grassfed cows). Saturated fats are essential for brain function (http://www.spacedoc.net/saturated_fat_is_good_for_you_1) and more. Pastured bacon contains vitamin d3, which is different than d2 because it is more easily absorbed. D3 prevents rickets. I could go on, but I have to go feed my kiddos ; – )

        Reply
      • Lolling that some random fat-a-phobe is trying to school *you* on what is healthy. Hey Jeff- the low-fat theory of healthy eating is going the way of the dinosaurs, so get on board the real food train. If you make your own mayo as you suggested, this recipe is full of the healthy unrefined fats our body needs. Coconut oil is full of saturated fat and is a wonderfood. I eat it off a spoon. Pastured bacon and raw cheese are real foods. A Big mac is your comparison? How many ingredients in that bun alone? Where does the meat come from? Processed cheese too? Look at the broccoli salad recipe again. Notice how all of the ingredients are real whole foods that you can immediately recognize? Now look at a Big Mac’s ingredients:

        Mmmm, science lab!
        You can eat your Big Mac if you want, I will stick to real foods, though I may lightly steam the broccoli…

        Reply
      • This is years later, I know, but this is hilarious! Poor guy must feel like he just dropped in from outer space! As I did, when I first started this real food journey, I might add.

        Reply
  2. finally made this the other day – we LOVED it!! i made a few changes – Greek yogurt instead of mayo, pecans instead of sunflower seeds and i left out the bacon (because i didn’t have time to cook it) – DELICIOUS!!

    Reply
  3. The Coconut Mama has a good coconut oil mayonnaise. In the comments section someone mentioned doing half coconut and half olive oil so I’m gonna try making the mayonnaise that way. I personally have never been a mayonnaise person but dont mind it in things such as this recipe (which I plan on making next week sometime – cant wait b/c it sounds delicious)!

    Reply
  4. @Kate We use homemade mayo, which I think has a lighter flavor and is more creamy, so it works well. Sometimes we scale back the cheese, though. Just depends how much broccoli I have on hand, I guess.

    Reply
  5. i tried it because Sydney loves raw broccoli but me, not so much – i substitute greek yogurt for the mayo and it’s delicious!

    Reply
  6. Wow that was odd. I just wrote an very long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyways, just wanted to say excellent blog!

    Reply
  7. This does look very delicious. One thing that has worked for me over the years to get my vegetable servings per day is a Vita Mix. I would be lost without it. I can make soup, smoothies, and even ice cream with it. This is where you throw in all the veggies and you lose the flavor of them by adding fruit. Ive never added bacon though 🙂

    Reply
  8. Love the recipe. I used baconaisse made from 1/2 olive and 1/2 bacon drippings from pastured pork bacon…and it makes it especially yummy.

    Reply
  9. Thank you for sharing this! My family loved it! Wasn’t too sure how my husband was going to react, but he loved it and both our girls too (2 & 4)! This will definitely be added in our dinner rotation!

    Reply
  10. made this last night and we loved it – I substituted the mayo for plain greek yogurt and instead of grapes (couldnt find organic) used apples and raisons. very tasty and went great with our bbq chicken.

    Reply
  11. Can I use something besides mayo? Homemade or not I can’t do it…can’t stand the taste, smell, etc. what about Greek yogurt? I’ve been searching for a Good chicken salad recipe maybe my kids will try but I won’t eat anything with mayo in it…therefore I never have it and my kids have never had it..
    Thanks!!

    Reply
  12. Curious if you have the nutritional counts oer serving for this recipe? We make it a lot and I love it but was curious on the Carb count mainly for my grandson who is type 1 Diabetic. Not sure he would eat it, but just in case? Thanks for this great site! Love your recipes. 🙂

    Reply
  13. Hi Heather! This looks super yummy! Three questions: best red wine vinegar sub for this recipe? Can this be made a day ahead, or is it best same day? Will frozen defrosted brocolli instead of fresh or ahould I lightly steam it and cool? My pregnant brain bought frozen instead of fresh brocolli. 🙂 Thank you!!!

    Reply
  14. Making this again! We love it!! But didn’t you used to have red wine vinegar instead of lemon juice? I don’t remember the lemon juice or am I mixing this up with another recipe?? Thanks for the great recipes!!

    Reply
  15. 3 stars
    I feel like these flavors didn’t blend together well but some in my family really liked it so I gave it 3 stars. If it were only me I would have given it a 1. I made it as written except I substituted Greek yogurt instead of mayo and green grapes instead of red. Also this makes a lot of salad so definitely could half this recipe unless you want to eat this for days.

    Reply
    • That’s funny. Greek yogurt and mayo taste completely different. No wonder you didn’t like it. I’ve tried this recipe for the past two years and everyone loves it. But we didn’t modify the recipe, so there you go.

      Reply