Our neighborhood held it’s annual Fall Potluck Lunch over the weekend that always takes place along the banks of our little community “pond”. You know the routine, bring one covered dish and the main dish will be provided. So I thought that I’d make my own version of a salad that I’ve had several times since moving to the South and have fallen in love with.
Nothing gourmet or complicated about this recipe, just easy and filled with lots of flavor.
Oh yea, there’s a lot of broccoli in this deal, so it’s a little bit healthy for us too. If you want it to be more healthy for you, then eliminate/reduce the mayonnaise. At the potluck, there were many typical, ‘expected’ and ‘safe’ dishes brought to the potluck (potato salad, cole slaw, deviled eggs, baked beans, etc.) and so this salad was the first to disappear from the food spread!
The changes that I made from recipes found in numerous ‘community’ cookbooks were: I used the thickest-sliced, meatiest, smokiest bacon I could find . . . none of this mamsy-pamsy thin, complete-white-fat-stuff that pretends to be bacon allowed! Plus I used a full pound of this thick bacon, instead of 6 oz. of skinny, fatty bacon. I also replaced ordinary raisins with more flavorful and colorful dried cranberries (plus hubby won’t eat raisins and he’ll devour dried cranberries!).
Enjoy and if you prepare this . . . I’d love to know what you think and/or how you made it better!
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PinIngredients
- 1 pound thick-sliced, hickory smoked bacon (this makes ALL the difference!) fried completely until dark reddish-brown and crispy, then cooled, and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces.
- 1 – 2 pounds fresh broccoli, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1–1/2 cups dried cranberries
- 1 cup thinly shredded mild cheddar cheese, or small cubes if you like
- 1 cup slivered almonds
- 1 cup sunflower seeds
- 1 – 2 cups mayonnaise
- 4 Tbsp. vinegar (try using red wine vinegar)
- 3 Tbsp. sugar
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, blend the first 6 ingredients together (from the broccoli to the sunflower seeds).
- Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine the mayonnaise, vinegar, and sugar.
- Blend well until sugar is dissolved.
- Combine the broccoli mixture with the mayonnaise mixture.
Broccoli, Dried Cranberry and Smokey Bacon Salad
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Kalei's Best Friend says
October 5, 2010 at 12:35 PMThis sounds sinful! lol.. I love bacon/broccoli salad! this is just sounds too good.
anniebakes says
October 5, 2010 at 12:40 PMyou’re the FIRST person I would invite to any potluck!!
anne
http://www.anniebakes.net
Kristin says
October 5, 2010 at 12:58 PMThis looks really good. I am not surprised that it was the first gone at the pot luck
Kim says
October 5, 2010 at 2:16 PMI would love to invite you to a potluck! This salad sounds amazing with so many flavors and textures going on. And, although I do like raisins, I think the cranberries suit this salad better. Looks good!!
Eileen says
October 5, 2010 at 8:25 PMThis looks absolutely delicious and I just adore broccoli salads, so many combinations. I love the addition of the dried cranberrie yours iny, I will be giving this a try very soon. Yummy!
Reeni says
October 5, 2010 at 9:04 PMI would love to see this at a potluck! Such wonderful flavors going on! I bet it’s one of those salads that’s hard to stop eating once you start.
elra says
October 5, 2010 at 9:05 PMAlways appreciate the taste of bacon in anything 🙂
redkathy says
October 5, 2010 at 9:27 PMFabulous fall salad Roz! I hear you on those typical pot luck dishes and I can see why this one disappeared. I think it wonderful that neighbors still celebrate like yours do.
♥peachkins♥ says
October 5, 2010 at 9:47 PMI love anything with bacon!
lizcooper says
October 6, 2010 at 9:15 AMOh my goodness. This looks delicious! I think I’ve found the blog from heaven!
Just popped over from Supermom’s blog! I just have to try this recipe!
LindyLouMac says
October 6, 2010 at 2:21 PMWhy was I not surprised that your salad disappeared first, it looks so tasty.
Magic of Spice says
October 6, 2010 at 4:32 PMI bet your neighbors are so pleased to have you around for a potluck…What a fantastic salad 🙂
Ben and Carrie Tracks says
October 6, 2010 at 8:20 PMYes please!!!
Monica H says
October 7, 2010 at 3:40 AMThis is my favorite version of broccoli salad, though I’ve never added cheeser to it. I also like the crunch of soy nuts instead of almonds. very good.
Patrice says
October 7, 2010 at 5:57 PMRoz,
There is an award for you over at my blog. I think you have a super blog and I wanted to share this with you. You can participate as much or as little as you like, but enjoy the award!
Patrice
http://www.everydayruralty.com
Briana says
October 8, 2010 at 7:29 PMThat looks delicious. I’m visiting on the Friday Blog Hop.
Debinhawaii says
October 10, 2010 at 9:07 PMBring on the bacon! 😉 This looks delicious–a great way to get some broccoli into the diet. Thanks for sending it to Souper Sundays.
Welcome To My Kitchen says
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