Broccoli Cashew Salad with Apples, Pears, and Cranberries
Broccoli Cashew Salad with Apples, Pears, and Cranberries is tossed with the most delicious homemade creamy salad dressing. This is an easy and healthy recipe packed with fruits and veggies.
- 5 cups broccoli florets (chopped into small bites)
- 1 large apple (cored and diced)
- 1 large pear ((firm, not soft), cored and diced)
- 1/4 cup red onion (diced)
- 1 cup cashews (toasted or roasted)
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup sour cream (or kefir or Greek yogurt)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/4 cup honey (softened or warmed up)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- In a large bowl, combine together chopped broccoli, diced apple, diced pear, diced red onion, cashews (toasted or roasted) and dried cranberries.
- In a small bowl, stir together mayonnaise, sour cream (or kefir or Greek yogurt), lemon juice, honey, and salt. Note that honey should be soft and runny, warm it up if needed, so that it mixes easily. Whisk the ingredients until well combined and smooth. Add salt if needed.
- Add the dressing to the broccoli salad and stir everything together.
The salad has an amazing texture thanks to the crunchy cashews, fresh vegetables, and fruits! The easy creamy salad dressing is made with mayonnaise, sour cream (or kefir or Greek yogurt), honey, and lemon juice! If you love broccoli salad, be sure to check out these 2 delicious salads: broccoli bacon salad and creamy broccoli and cauliflower salad.
This broccoli cashew salad is a healthy recipe that you can make any time of the year, but especially during the winter season to get a boost of antioxidants, vitamins, and fiber! It's easy-to-make, and it keeps well refrigerated. A great choice for family weeknight dinners, barbecues, potlucks, and parties!
Salad dressing
Whenever I make a broccoli salad, I love combining mayo and sour cream together for a creamy salad dressing and it's a lovely flavor combination! If you don't like sour cream (or don't have it), feel free to use kefir or Greek yogurt in place of sour cream for an equally good flavor! I also add lemon juice, honey, and salt. Make sure to soften the honey (by heating it up gently) before adding it to other salad dressing ingredients, to make sure it blends in smoothly.
How to make broccoli cashew salad
Broccoli salad is all about chopping up the fresh veggies and fruits and then combining them in a large bowl with a salad dressing. That's it!
Cut broccoli into small, bite-sized pieces.
Chop up a cored apple, cored pear, red onion.
In a large bowl, combine chopped up broccoli, apples, pear, red onions, cranberries, and cashews.
In a small bowl, stir together mayonnaise, sour cream (or kefir or Greek yogurt), lemon juice, honey, and salt. Tip: honey should be soft and runny. Warm it up if needed, so that it mixes easily.
Add in the dressing and stir everything together.
Variations and substitutions
Cauliflower. If you want to mix things up, use an equal amount of cauliflower to replace the half amount of broccoli.
Nuts. Many types of nuts will work here. Use pecans, peanuts, walnuts, pine nuts, or pistachios instead of cashews.
Dried fruit. Dried cranberries work great in this recipe, and so do dried cherries, raisins, or dried blueberries.
Fresh Fruit. The mix of fresh apples and pears works beautifully here, but you can go just with apples or just with pears.
Salad dressing. For the salad dressing, combine together mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice, honey, and salt. You can lighten up the dressing by replacing some of the mayo or sour cream with kefir or Greek yogurt.
