This Simple Broccoli Salad is packed with healthy ingredients and tossed with a flavorful balsamic, olive oil and lemon juice dressing. And YES, it truly can be made in only 10 minutes!
Salad lovers! This broccoli salad is great for meal prep or serving a crowd in a time crunch. Looking for more broccoli salad inspo, check out our Asian broccoli salad or our healthy broccoli salad with bacon.
15-Minute Salad, SAY WHAT?!
This broccoli salad can seriously be prepped and made from start to finish in 15 minutes! Aka: this salad is perfect for when you’re whipping up a quick lunch or din and is also great for easy peasy meal prep for the week.
Warm vs. Cold Salads
Since this salad features sautƩed broccoli and onions, it can be served warm immediately after making (we LOVE this option!) or chilled in the fridge before serving (also delicious!). The choice is truly yours.
Broccoli Salad for Meal Prep
Because this salad keeps well in the fridge, it’s a great recipe to make for meal prep! It can be easily doubled or tripled to serve a crowd or to save for the week’s lunches.
Broccoli Salad Ingredients
This salad is packed with healthy veggies, dried fruit and crumbled cheese. Plus, it’s dressed with a simple balsamic, olive oil and lemon juice dressing.
Salad Ingredients
- Broccoli, chopped into small florets: most major grocers carry already chopped broccoli florets, so feel free to buy broccoli florets to save a few minutes in prepping this already super quick salad!
- Red onion: if you prefer white or yellow onion, they will taste great in this salad as well!
- Red pepper: red pepper adds great color to this salad, but if you only have yellow or green peppers on hand, they are great substitutions.
- Dried cranberries: craisins, raisins, dried cherries, dried apricots — choose your own dried fruit adventure for this salad if you prefer another variety!
- Sunflower seeds: sub in your favorite seed like slivered almonds, hemp seeds, chopped walnuts or cashews if you prefer something to sunflower seeds.
- Crumbled feta cheese: crumbed feta or crumbled goat cheese will work for this broccoli salad recipe! Or, omit the feta completely if you can’t tolerate dairy.
Dressing
- Lemon juice
- Balsamic vinegar
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
How to Make Broccoli Salad
This 15-minute broccoli salad can be made in 3 simple steps and served hot or cold. Does it get any better?!
SautƩ Broccoli and Onion
First, start by heating 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium/high heat.
When olive oil is fragrant (this means it’s hot!), add the broccoli to the pan and season broccoli with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Let the broccoli cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
After 3 minutes of cooking, add the diced red onion to the pan and cook for an additional 2 minutes. You want the broccoli to start to brown a bit, but not get mushy!
Remove the broccoli and onion from heat and transfer into a large bowl.
Mix in Remainder of Ingredients
Mix in:
- Red pepper
- Dried cranberries
- Sunflower seeds
- Feta cheese
Toss these ingredients in the bowl with the broccoli and onion until everything is mixed well.
Drizzle with Dressing
Finally, drizzle on the lemon juice, remaining olive oil, and balsamic vinegar over the salad and mix one final time. Pro Tip: Add more salt and pepper to taste and enjoy immediately or place in the refrigerator to enjoy later as a meal prep salad.
More Broccoli Salad Recipes
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10-Minute Broccoli Salad
This Simple Broccoli Salad is packed with healthy ingredients and tossed with a flavorful balsamic, olive oil and lemon juice dressing. And YES, it truly can be made in only 10 minutes!
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 medium heads broccoli, chopped into small pieces (~6 cups)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 medium red onion, finely diced
- 1 large red pepper, diced
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Begin by heating 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium/high heat.
- When olive oil is fragrant, add the broccoli to the pan and season broccoli with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Let the broccoli cook for about 3 minutes, stirring periodically.
- After 3 minutes of cooking, add the red onion to the pan and cook for an additional 2 minutes. You want the broccoli to start to brown a bit, but not get mushy!
- Remove the broccoli and onion from heat and transfer into a large bowl.
- Add the red pepper, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, and feta cheese to the bowl and mix all of the ingredients together.
- Finally, drizzle on lemon juice, remaining olive oil, and balsamic vinegar over the salad and mix one final time.
- Add more salt and pepper to taste and enjoy immediately or place in the refrigerator for a meal prep salad.
Tips & Notes
- This salad is delicious eaten both warm and cold!
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1/6 recipe Calories: 174 Sugar: 6 Sodium: 216 Fat: 12 Carbohydrates: 11 Fiber: 3 Protein: 5Keywords: broccoli salad
Wowza, my kind of salad – quick, easy, delicious. Is it possible to eat too much of it? š
★★★★★
Delicious, can I put mayo in instead of balsamic vinegar, thanks