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This Superfood Salad with Broccoli is packed with nutrition! You’ve got tender broccoli florets, tons of cranberries, nuts, and seeds. All drizzled with the most delicious creamy poppy seed dressing!
This certainly isn’t the broccoli salad you grew up eating… or the one from the grocery store!
Today’s superfood salad recipe is one that you can feel healthy as heck about eating because it’s bursting with nutrients. Picture: a healthy salad loaded with fiber-ful ingredients that are good for you. It’s the kind of salad I want in March and then again in the middle of June.
We’re talking tender broccoli florets, quinoa, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds and the dressing even has a dollop of white miso paste.
Broccoli is one of my all-time favorite vegetables to use in a salad. Color, texture, and crunch – it’s got it all.
This superfood salad with broccoli is:
- Vegan-friendly with just one simple swap
- Dairy-free
- Gluten-free
- Easily adaptable with ingredients you like
Flavorful & nutritious salad!! I am addicted to the balance of salty, sweet. Dressing smells amazingly good. This salad is such a delicious way to enjoy fresh broccoli. Highly recommend!!
Ingredients for Superfood Salad
- Broccoli florets: this is the base of our recipe with the cooked quinoa. It’s my spin on the broccoli salad, minus the bacon and the cheddar cheese – and you won’t even miss it!
- Cooked Quinoa: adds tons of protein to the recipe
- Sliced Nuts and Seeds: I’m using almonds and sunflower seeds. Swap the sunflower seeds for pumpkin seeds if you like!
- Dried Cranberries: use the unsweetened kind to keep the carbs low, but either work here!
- Oil: I like to use olive oil for this recipe, preferably extra virgin.
- Honey: adds a touch of sweetness. Feel free to swap for maple syrup or agave to make this vegan-friendly.
- White wine vinegar: give the recipe the acid it needs to pack the maximum flavor.
- Shallot: I like to use shallots because they’re slightly sweeter. But you can also use red onions that are finely minced.
- White Miso Paste: is a fermented food so it contains probiotics. It helps promote gut health and works wonders on digestion.
- Poppyseeds: are great for bone health and digestion. They contain heart-healthy omega 6 fatty acids and are loaded with fiber!
Making The Best SuperFood Salad
- Make the dressing. Start by adding the olive oil, honey, white wine vinegar, shallots, white miso paste, poppyseeds, kosher salt, and black pepper into af ood processor or blender. Blend until smooth.
- Steam the broccoli. I prefer al-dente broccoli in this salad soI always steam it. Makes it easier for kids to eat too, but this is optional.
- Make the salad. In a large bowl, combine the steamed broccoli, with the remaining salad ingredients. Dress the entire salad if you’re serving immediately or as needed of reach serving, enjoy!
Why I say yes to this superfood broccoli salad
- Begging to be tried with substitutes. Go half broccoli, half cauliflower. Add chopped kale or shaved Brussels sprouts. Swap the cranberries for fresh cherries. Steam your broccoli, or don’t. Use walnuts instead of almonds.
- Want more protein? Add grilled chicken or salmon or use edamame or avocado for plant-based protein.
- It lasts in the fridge for what is considered light years in salad times. Toss the salad ingredients together and keep the dressing on the side, add it to the salad as you need it!
- Ideal for meal prep. Pop it into those single compartment meal prep containers along with a condiment container for the dressing.
Superfood Broccoli Salad with Creamy Poppyseed Dressing
Ingredients
Poppyseed Dressing:
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons honey agave or maple syrup, plus more
- 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 shallot or red onion, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon white miso paste
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
Broccoli Salad:
- 4 cups fresh broccoli florets ~1½ pounds
- 1 cup cooked quinoa cooled (~⅓ cup dry)
- ½ cup sliced almonds
- ½ cup sunflower seeds
- ½ cup dried cranberries
Instructions
- Dressing: Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a food processor starting with 3 tablespoons of honey and a big pinch of salt and pepper. Blend until the dressing is smooth. Taste and adjust with additional honey or salt and pepper as desired. I prefer this one with around 3½ tablespoons of honey.
- Broccoli Salad: Steam the broccoli if you’d like, I did because I wanted it to have a more vibrant color. Combine the ingredients for the salad in a large bowl. Dress the entire salad if you’ll finish it all within 24 hours. Otherwise, mix just what you need and keep the two separate, they’ll last much longer this way.
Notes
- I’ve only tried using white miso paste for this so I’m unsure of any other substitutes or other types of miso that could be used here.
- This makes just enough dressing for this salad. If you usually prefer your salad with lots of dressing, you may want to double it. It’s so good you can easily use it on other salads too!
- Feel free to add grilled chicken or cooked salmon to this. Crumbled bacon and cheddar cheese are also additions that can easily be made 😉
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like This? Leave a comment & rating below!
Flavorful & nutritious salad!! I am addicted to the balance of salty, sweet. Dressing smells amazingly good. This salad is such a delicious way to enjoy fresh broccoli. Highly recommend!!
So good!!!
Threw some hemp seeds in, as well. Skipped the craisins. Winner recipe.
I LOVED the Moroccan Quinoa power salad. Even my meat-and-potatoes husband really enjoyed it. I’d like to try the quinoa broccoli poppyseed salad you have listed here as well….but I”m allergic to soy. What could you swap the miso in the dressing with?
I made this salad on Sunday afternoon, intending it to last for the weeks’ lunches. We’d already tried (and loved) the Quinoa Power Salad, but since I had broccoli on hand I decided to go with this one. I went to work and around 12:30 PM I received an impromptu text from my boyfriend regarding this salad: “Baby!! That salad with the broccoli is AMAZING!!!! Best salad ever!!!”
When I finally dug into mine I agreed! This will definitely be on our rotation! We only got four servings out of the salad, but I think it is because I didn’t have enough broccoli. After steaming it it shrunk a bit. We had dressing to spare, though (which makes me think our salad portions weren’t overly large). We’re not too upset about having left over dressing. 😉
I love that! Glad you enjoyed it! You can always add additional broccoli to the next batch if you’d like, or just up the ingredients by a tiny bit. It might have something to do with the quinoa I suspect, it fluffs up differently every single time so sometimes you end up with more, and sometimes less!
Wonderful salad. Everyone in the family loved it!
Absolutely delicious! I am not fond of mayonnaise based broccoli salad, but I love broccoli, so this was great. I had it for my main course with some homemade pita crisps. I’m interested to see how well it holds up as leftovers. Thanks for a great recipe!