Healthy Broccoli Salad with Greek Yogurt Dressing

As if broccoli wasn't awesome enough, we added a ton of deliciousness including a creamy greek yogurt dressing to this healthy broccoli salad.  This Healthy Broccoli Salad with Greek Yogurt Dressing makes a great side dish, main entree, and stores great in the fridge!

Broccoli. I love it. I really do.

What’s NOT to love about it? Broccoli is easy to cook, easy to roast, and easy to transform into a fresh broccoli salad.

...a healthy and creamy broccoli salad, that is!

Isn’t this exciting?

If you’re like me, you are also excited about a clean broccoli salad recipe full of delicious flavors.

What are your favorite broccoli salad ingredients, aside from the broccoli, of course?  Do you like to make broccoli salad with raisins and other dried fruits and nuts?  Maybe with sliced apples or sliced grapes?  Heck -- even cheese and sunflower seeds are options, too.

The best thing about broccoli salad is that it’s super versatile. As versatile as you want it to be.

As tasty as a broccoli salad is, though, not all broccoli salads are created equal. Typically, broccoli salad is made with a heavy mayo-based salad dressing.

How’s that healthy then?

That’s not very healthy, you are correct. But I’m gonna teach you how to make broccoli salad with a creamy salad dressing that has no mayo in it.

What's the secret?

Healthy greek yogurt salad dressing is the secret.  Shhh.

And it’s very easy to make. All you have to do is mix together the following:

• greek yogurt
• apple cider vinegar
• raw honey
• lemon zest
• sea salt

That’s it! Healthy goodness (AKA greek yogurt broccoli salad dressing) ready in less than 5 minutes.   Tangy.  Creamy.  Easy.

Have you ever tried broccoli salad with bacon? It’s delicious, isn’t it? I don’t know about you but I love me a little bit of bacon from time to time. There’s something about the taste that makes me crave it. I know I’m not alone in this.

But can bacon and clean recipes be friends?

Yes, they can!  If you use uncured bacon with no sugar added, your recipes will stay clean and healthy. And if you only use a few crumbles for extra flavor and crunch, you're good to go!

P.S.: You can leave it out if you want to make this recipe vegetarian or if you simply don’t like bacon.

SALADS GREAT FOR ANY OCCASION!

There are SO many reasons why salads are great for any occasion.  Salads make great side dishes for BBQs and holidays because they are a healthy option compared to the traditional holiday or BBQ side dishes.  Salads are also very easy to make so you don’t have to be an experienced cook to make a delicious salad. You can hate cooking, but you would still be able to make a simple side dish salad.

PLUS Salads typically mean less time spent in the kitchen.  Healthy, easy to make, fast. Aren’t salads just the best?

HEALTH BENEFITS OF BROCCOLI

So we all kinda intuitively know broccoli is good for you, but do you know why it's healthy or how good it is for your body?  Broccoli is...

• high in fiber
• high in potassium
• high in iron
• great source of vitamin K
• great source of vitamin C
• low in calories

Compared to other veggies, broccoli contains a higher amount of protein, too -- making it an awesome veggie choice.

What I’m basically trying to say is that a broccoli side dish is always a good idea. No doubt about it.

HOW TO CUT BROCCOLI INTO FLORETS

Have you ever looked at a broccoli crown before cutting it and said, “Where do I even start?”

While staring at a full head of broccoli may look complicated, it's really not.

Trust me, it really isn’t difficult to learn how to cut broccoli into florets. You just have to be a bit strategic.

While you could just go to town and start chopping away, the broccoli will break into millions of little pieces and make a big mess.  Ideally, you'll want to break it into florets, especially when making a broccoli salad.

Here's how to cut the broccoli into florets:

1. Wash the broccoli thoroughly under running water in your sink.
2. Remove the stem with a large knfe.
3. Use a paring knife to break down the broccoli into florets.
4. Cut where the stem begins to branch into florets. Your broccoli florets should look like little trees. Cute little trees.
5. Continue to move inward until you finish cutting the entire broccoli into florets.
6. If your florets don’t look ideal, you can tidy up by cutting the stem further and further.

You want all the florets to be bite-sized so cut them until they have the same size.

You can also use the pull apart method to make them the same size. That involves – you guessed it – pulling apart the florets.

What about the stems?

This recipe does not require stems so should I throw them in the trash can?

No no no!

There are many things you can do with the stems but throwing them away is not one of them. For instance, I like to eat them as a snack. A healthy and delicious snack.

But broccoli stems can be transformed into:

• broccoli soup
• broccoli pesto
• pickles (yes, broccoli stems pickles are a thing)
• broccoli chips

You can also grill broccoli stems. They make a delicious broccoli side dish on their own.

GREEK YOGURT VS. MAYO

I told you the secret of this healthy broccoli salad is greek yogurt. However, this is not really a big secret. If you want to make a salad dressing healthy, substitute full fat plain greek yogurt for mayonnaise and you're well on your way.

Substituting less healthy ingredients for better, more nourishing ingredients is really the key to making your favorite recipes clean. And healthy.  And tasty.

Mayo is not that healthy. Mayo is full of unhealthy fats. And mayo is high in calories. 1495 calories per 1 cup high in calories. Say what? Well, yes. That sounds scary.

Greek yogurt, on the other hand…well, greek yogurt is amazing. Just check the nutrition facts.

Greek yogurt nutrition:

• 220 calories
• 11 g fat
• 20 grams protein
• 23% of the recommended daily dose of calcium
• 320 mg Potassium
• 91 (naturally occurring) sugar
• 1% of the recommended daily dose of Vitamin A
• 1% of the recommended daily dose of Vitamin D
• 1% of the recommended daily dose of Vitamin B-12

Also, greek yogurt is full of probiotics. Probiotics are great for your immune system and they keep your digestive system happy.

Are you excited about greek yogurt now?

Well, good because I will teach you how to make salad dressing with greek yogurt AND there are many greek yogurt recipes and healthy greek yogurt salad dressing you can try.

PREPARING BROCCOLI SALAD AHEAD OF TIME

Can fresh broccoli salad be made ahead of time?

Why, yes. Yes, of course.

You can...

1. Prep the ingredients for the salad.
2. Mix them together.
3. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge.
4. You can also prep the dressing and store it separately in the fridge (like I do with these homemade salad dressings)

This healthy greek yogurt salad dressing is good for other salads as well so if you want to use it for other salads, you totally can. Double or triple the ingredients in this recipe, transfer the dressing to a jar and store it in the fridge.

Ta-daaaah:  Greek yogurt salad dressing ready to be mixed with your favorite salads.

However, the ingredients of the broccoli salad and the greek yogurt dressing like to mingle. So you can combine them a day before serving the salad. The taste will only get better.  I LOVE it when that happens!

HOW LONG DOES BROCCOLI SALAD LAST?

Most people don’t have time to cook daily. Are you one of those people? Well, if you are, you will love this salad even more.

Wondering why?

Because if you don’t have a lot of time to cook during the week, this low carb broccoli salad lasts for 4 to 5 days in the fridge.

That means it's a great prep-ahead salad to serve as a side or an entree and can even be grabbed at the last minute to bring with you to a potluck.  Meal prep perfection!

3 HEALTHY BROCCOLI RECIPES

I’m curious, is it super obvious that I’m obsessed with broccoli? I guess it is.

So it comes as no surprise if I say I like to incorporate broccoli into my weekly menu as often as possible, right? I want you to love broccoli as much as I do so here are other healthy recipes made with broccoli:

ROASTED BROCCOLI

If you’ve never tried Roasted Broccoli before, you should! In less than 30 minutes and with only a few ingredients, you’ll have a delicious dish on your table.

Steamed broccoli was a staple broccoli dish in my house until I realized I can cook broccoli in different ways. Since then, I have many favorite broccoli dishes and this Roasted Broccoli is one of them. Get the recipe.

CLEAN BROCCOLI TOTS

This Clean Broccoli Tots recipe is another favorite of mine. It’s the perfect mix of fun, healthy and delicious.

The broccoli tots are a great kid-friendly snack but also a fun side dish. They keep you full, satisfied and feeling very accomplished. Yes, accomplished because making and eating healthy tater tots is definitely a big win. Get the recipe.

EASY CREAM OF BROCCOLI SOUP

Another favorite broccoli recipe of mine is this Easy Cream Of Broccoli Soup. It’s easy, simple, and yummy, yummy, yummy.

When you crave cream soup but you want to stay on the healthy side of eating, this broccoli soup will be your savior. It’s ready in 25 minutes and it’s full of wonderful flavors. Get the recipe.

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