Healthy Broccoli Salad – non-mayo-based vegan goodness! With purple cabbage, raisins, almonds, green onions, and almond butter dressing.
Broccoli Salad with Creamy Almond Dressing
No mayo, no bacon, and no missing flavor because this baby is packed with crunchy-creamy plant goodness! Featuring purple cabbage, broccoli, raisins, almonds, green onions, and a creamy vegan almond-miso-orange dressing.
Featured comment
This salad (and many many variations of) has become a staple in our house. The dressing is wonderful – I think it is the little hint of onion/shallots that make it 🙂
Kelly
Guys. It’s me and this broccoli salad here, and we are at your summertime service.
Crunchy, healthy, saucy, delicious things ahead.
Before we embrace the healthiness of this updated broccoli salad, let’s give a little love to the good old fashioned broccoli salad.
Yes, BROCCOLI SALAD. This is the food of my upbringing. I’m talking about the variety of broccoli salad that is thick with a sweet mayo-based dressing and loaded with plenty of bacon and sunflower seeds and raisins – the one that is so retro and amazing in the way that only a mayo-and-bacon-based salad can be. And in summer? I mean, basically any pot-luck, graduation party, or picnic-esque functions in my beloved small town Minnesota? You know there’s gonnabe broccoli salad out there in the wild, and you know we’re all gonnabe lovin it.
HOW TO MAKE OUR BROCCOLI SALAD:
My heart has nothing but love for the original broccoli salad. I’m not looking to replace it.
And to be honest, I’m not even expecting to win over the broccoli-salad-makers of small town Minnesota who kept my mayo salad quota full for most of my childhood. That’s okay. I won’t feel bad. There’s room for old and new at our table.
This can be its own thing, really, can’t it?
It’s a modern twist on the classic old school broccoli salad and it’s healthy and plant based and colorful and, I mean, I might be a tiny bit biased, but it’s also REALLY DELICIOUS to the point where you are willing to look past the embarrassment of pulling it out of the fridge for a midnight snack in order to taste the creamy, cold, salty-sweet crunch of the broccoli, raisins, and almond orange dressing.
It’s the kind of food that gets me most excited in all the world. ♡ Healthy meets color, texture, flavor, and ease of preparation. Diving in NOW.
The sauce starts with almond butter and miso to give it a heavy, creamy-like texture and weight that will cling to the broccoli and get all up in between those little crunchy ingredients. Then we work that sauce with shallots, canola oil, and orange juice.
So here goes. Throw the gang into the food processor and we’re off.
Super creamy, salty, delicious sauce that is mild and smooth in flavor – check.
Pour over super healthy ingredients like broccoli, almonds, cabbage, and raisins – check.
Toss together and find yourself at midnight eating the leftovers cold straight out of the fridge – CHECK.
Broccoli salad, I love you I love you I love you so much for summer.
Broccoli Salad with Creamy Almond Dressing
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Description
Healthy Broccoli Salad – non-mayo-based vegan goodness! With purple cabbage, raisins, almonds, green onions, and almond butter dressing.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
For the Salad:
- 2 heads broccoli, cut into small florets
- 2 cups chopped purple cabbage
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 1/2 cup chopped green onions
For the Miso Orange Dressing
- 2/3 cup orange juice
- 2 tablespoons miso
- 2 tablespoons almond butter
- 1 shallot
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
Instructions
- Toss all the salad ingredients together in a bowl.
- Pulse the dressing ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Pour over the salad ingredients and toss to combine.
- Serve immediately! Add more orange juice to add more moisture as needed.
Notes
Miso Substitute: We’ve subbed in soy sauce for the miso and it works great!
We’ve made this several times and we liked it with a handful of cooked quinoa thrown in for good measure as well as a little bit of crumbled bacon as a throwback to the original broccoli salad. 🙂
If you like salads with a lot of dressing, be sure to double up on the dressing for this one.
Also, if you don’t have access to miso, you could just use almond butter in place of the miso but be sure to compensate with additional salt to taste.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Category: Lunch
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: healthy broccoli salad, vegan broccoli salad, broccoli salad recipe
Thank you to Simply Orange for partnering with us for this post! For more Simply Orange recipes, be sure to follow them on Facebook.
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our best healthy summer salads page. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Broccoli Dairy-Free Gluten-Free Healthy Lunch Quick and Easy Salads Spring Sugar-Free Summer Vegan Vegetarian
June 16, 2016
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
Very tasty broccoli salad!
i love creamy things as much as the next person, but this sounds like the perfect balance between rich (almond butter and miso are both super creamy and flavorful), and bright (yay oj!).
Your description is perfect. 🙂 Thanks for the comment Heather!
Yum – Broccoli salad!! Going to be making this over the weekend in balmy, BBQ-worthy London as we settle in for the Euro 2016 football tournament. Having good weather and being able to BBQ in this town is a BIG deal. AND I love the new addition of of your other salad recipes right below. VERY handy. Woah! Broccoli salad?? How yum
Thanks Cassandra! 🙂 We like to make salad lovers happy.
Looks yummy! Healthy too;-). Why does one of the photos show green onions in the salad? Should I add those too?
Yes! Those should be listed in the recipe. If not I will update.
You’re inspiring me to eat so healthy this summer!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
Oooh, miso! I never know what to do with miso besides soup. Love this idea, in the dressing! Sounds 100% delicious 🙂
Thanks Michelle! Miso is super delicious and awesome for sauces. Awesomesauce!
Beautiful salad. And love the video! Keep ’em coming!
Thank you Amy! We’re working on it! 🙂
I have never had REAL broccoli salad! GASP. Probably because I don’t want anything to do with things that have mayonnaise. But this version looks so YUMMMMM!
Thanks Shannon! Glad to hear that!
Yes! I just bought a costco sized bag of broccoli. Can you offer a suggestion for miso substitute? Just don’t feel like hunting down that ingredient at the moment.
Yo could just use all almond butter. The main point is the salty flavor (so add a little salt to compensate) and to thicken, which almond butter would do for you.
Phenomenally good!!!
I found your recipe 2 summers ago and it is now on regular rotation. If I go too long without it I start craving it. Miso and orange is sooo delicious, and I really appreciate the lack of added sugars. Thank you so much for this recipe!
Oh Wow – I love that Miso Orange Dressing with almond butter so much, I could marry it! Dang! Out of the park with that dressing, Lindsay!
Thanks Shashi!
I am totally loving this twist on the classic broccoli salad!! Can’t wait to try it.
Seriously?? Do you know how they manufacture & process the “oranges” … to keep them fresh/available all year round?! This is not a clean salad with processed orange juice even if the label says no sugar … honestly, I watched a documentary on the industry … eeewwww, it’s so disgusting and really sad! Stick to fresh squeezed!
I bet you’re fun at parties
that was funny. lol
@Kim- Juice your own oranges and enjoy the salad.
@Stephanie- Thank you. Literally laughed as I scrolled.
I can’t wait to try this… minus the dirty canola oil + EVOO. Sounds perfect for that midnight snack too. Thanks for a new refreshing broccoli salad recipe. 🙂
I love broccoli salad and have a favorite that I make, but this has a different twist to it. Looks mmmm good, and I’m going to try it out.
Hope you enjoy it, Angie!
I died and went to salad heaven!!! The flavors here omg! I want to throw the whole batch into a bowl and dig in. I bet this would be delicious with some blackened tofu.
Agreed! Enjoy! 🙂
Lovely salad recipes! Do you have calorie/nutrition information on any of them? Thank you for posting these.
Martha
Many of them do! Those that do will have it near the end of the post by the recipe text. 🙂
Loved the video, and this looks wonderful! It’s a great way to revamp broccoli because I’ve been in a rut with it!
Hope you enjoy it, Cassie! 🙂
Love all your salad recipes; however, being a cancer survivor, I cannot have anything containing soy, i.e., miso: can I replace that with something else?
Definitely! We’d just use almond butter in place of the miso, but be sure to compensate with additional salt to taste.
Our local food co-op sells a miso made from chickpeas. No soy in it. You might check around to see if it is available in your area.
This looks amazing! I don’t have miso on hand and I see you recommend just doubling up on the almond butter but could I possibly use fish sauce? Or too salty? Wrong flavor?
the protein in the pancake mix you have. Is it that collagen peptide protein? Those are pretty expensive pancakes. Why is that necessary rather than a more affordable product?
You can use whatever protein powder you prefer – that’s just what we’ve liked and recommend!
Made this salad and brought it to a pot luck. It was a huge hit!! Super easy to make too. Great that it didn’t require any cooking. Will definitely make again.
Glad to hear it, Lauren! 🙂
Even as a picky eater this salad sounds like something I wouldn’t be opposed to trying! Thank you for sharing!
Hope you enjoy it, Mackenzie!
This almond dressing is amazing! New favorite!
Everything looks so yummy! Must try it 😀
Jabeen x
https://www.spilling-the-beans.co.uk/
Hope you enjoy it! 🙂
This salad looks amazing! It’s super healthy, filling, and packed with flavor. Would love to try it soon!
Hope you enjoy it!
shrimp and avocado salad with miso dressing = that sounds like HEAVEN to me! Will try this as soon as I get back from Korea!!!
Leah // http://www.sunmoonwars.com
Hope you enjoy it! And have a great trip!