Easy Broccoli Salad with Bacon

Easy Broccoli Salad with Bacon is an easy to make salad that is perfect for all occasions.

This easy salad is loaded with broccoli, sweet onions, crumbled bacon, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, and is dressed up in a sweet and tangy sauce. Whether you are going to a picnic, BBQ, potluck or Thanksgiving dinner, this salad is perfect and everyone will love it!

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Easy Broccoli Salad with Bacon, onions, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries and a tangy sweet dressing

My sister made this salad for a family party years ago and it became one of my favorite salads after the first bite! I could eat just this salad for a meal and be completely satisfied. It is tangy, sweet and so yummy!

Easy to make Broccoli Salad with Bacon comes together in minutes and is delicious. This salad is easy to make ahead, and is even better the next day (totally my opinion) after the dressing has soaked into the broccoli a bit.

Broccoli Salad Ingredients

The ingredients for this Easy Broccoli Salad with Bacon are pretty simple, but the flavor combination is down right tasty.

You will need a whole bunch of broccoli cut up. How big you cut the broccoli is up to you. I like mine chopped in small, bite-size pieces, but if you want larger pieces you can cut them bigger.

This recipe calls for 6 to 7 cups of cut up broccoli. Cutting up the broccoli is the thing that takes the longest, making this picnic salad super easy to make, and super easy to make ahead!

The other ingredients you need for your easy to make salad are chopped sweet onions, dried cranberries or halved grapes, sunflower seeds (not the kind you eat at a baseball game with the shells on), and cooked and crumbled bacon.

The Dressing

The dressing for this Easy Broccoli Salad with Bacon has the best dressing. It only takes 3 ingredients to make this sweet and tangy dressing and it puts this salad over the top with flavor.

You will need mayonnaise, sugar and white vinegar. That is it!! This salad dressing is simple, sweet, tangy and the perfect balance for the broccoli, onions, bacon, sunflower seeds and cranberries.

Just mix all the ingredients up and set it aside. If you feel like there is too much dressing, you can half the recipe. I love a lot of dressing on my salad so I make the dressing as the recipe states below.

Easy Broccoli Salad with Bacon, onions, dried cranberries and sunflower seeds

Making Easy Broccoli Salad with Bacon

I said this salad is easy to make, and it is most definitely easy to make! You can make this right before your picnic or BBQ or you can make it ahead and store it in your fridge until you are ready to eat. I really think it is even better the next day!

You will need to cut up your broccoli into your desired size. I stated before I like mine in bite-sized pieces so it’s easier to eat. You can cut it up as small or as big as you like. (You can see in my photos the size I prefer my broccoli).

You will need to cook and crumble your bacon. Fresh cooked and crumbled bacon is a must for this salad. And then chop up your sweet onion.

You will mix your cut broccoli, chopped bacon, chopped onions, sunflower seeds, and dried cranberries (or halved grapes if you choose) in a large bowl.

Pour your dressing over the broccoli and other ingredients and give it a good mix.

There will be dressing that settles on the bottom, you can keep stirring it up as needed. You will be happy there is some extra dressing if you have leftover salad. The broccoli will soak up the dressing a bit and so it is better to have some extra dressing to make sure your leftovers have enough.

Broccoli salad with bacon in a bowl and fork with a bite on it

This salad is so yummy! It is the perfect salad for hot summer meals, picnics, potlucks, Thanksgiving or Holiday dinners. This easy to make Broccoli Salad with Bacon will be a salad everyone loves!

For some other salads that are easy to make and perfect for all occasions try my Shrimp Salad, Fast and Easy Pasta Salad, my Easy Italian Pasta Salad, my Cucumber Pasta Salad or my Spinach Tortellini Salad.


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Easy to make Broccoli Salad with Bacon

Easy Broccoli Salad with Bacon

Easy Broccoli Salad with Bacon is an easy to make salad that is perfect for all occasions. This easy salad is loaded with broccoli, sweet onions, crumbled bacon, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, and is dressed up in a sweet and tangy sauce.
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Prep Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 8 servings

Ingredients

  • 6 to 7 cups broccoli, cut up into bite sized pieces
  • 1 cup dried cranberries *halved grapes works great too
  • 1/2 cup sweet onions, chopped *or more if desired
  • 1/4 cup sunflower seeds (not with the shells – just the seeds)
  • 5 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled *or more if desired

The Dressing

  • 2 cups Mayonnaise *do not use Miracle Whip or light mayo
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup white vinegar

Instructions

  • Chop your broccoli, and onions. Cook and crumble your bacon. Mix the broccoli, onions, bacon, sunflower seeds and dried cranberries together in a large bowl.
  • Mix the dressing ingredients together.
    **You can half the dressing recipe and while it is enough to cover the salad, it won't be super flavored and super covered with dressing. I make my salad as the recipe states so I have enough dressing (especially if you are planning on having leftovers you will want the extra dressing).
  • Pour the dressing over the broccoli and other ingredients and mix well. Serve and enjoy!

Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should only be used as an approximation.


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