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Broccoli Crunch Salad is packed full of crunchy broccoli, crispy bacon, toasted pecans and ramen noodles. Covered it a light, flavorful dressing it is a delicious way to get more green in your diet.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Broccoli Salad has been one of my favorite, go to pot luck dishes for years or anytime I’m craving some broccoli! My mom made this broccoli salad long before I did. Today’s recipe for Broccoli Crunch Salad takes the traditional broccoli salad up a few notches.
- Instead of a mayo based dressing this recipe uses a light, oil and vinegar based dressing.
- It is also loaded with lots of crunch. Besides the broccoli you have crunch from the toasted pecans and ramen noodles and the crispy bacon.
- Broccoli Crunch Salad is one of the easiest salads to make, the hardest part is cutting up all the broccoli.
Ingredients Needed
- Broccoli. Cut into small pieces
- Green Onions. Diced
- Bacon. Cooked crisp and cut into small pieces
- Ramen Noodles. You only need the noodles, not the seasoning pack.
- Butter
- Pecans. You could also use almonds or walnuts if you prefer.
- Oil. I use canola, vegetable or avocado oil.
- Vinegar. Red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar will work.
- Sugar
- Soy Sauce
How to Make Broccoli Crunch Salad
- Cut up your broccoli into bite size pieces. Make sure they are small pieces, about 1/2″ size. I use the florets and stem of the broccoli. Remove the outer skin from the stem with a potato peeler and you will find nice, tender broccoli hiding inside. Cut it up into small pieces too.
- Break up the ramen noodles and combine with nuts and butter on a baking sheet.
- Toast in a 350 degree F. oven for 10 minutes. Stir a few times to make sure they are browning evenly.
- Fry bacon until crisp. It softens up as it sits in the dressing so make sure it starts out nice and crisp.
Broccoli Salad Dressing
My favorite part of the salad is this dressing. Most broccoli salads use a mayonnaise based dressing but this one is lighter.
- Mix up Dressing. Combine oil, sugar, soy sauce and vinegar. Stir to combine.
- Combine broccoli, bacon, green onions, toasted ramen noodle mixture and toss with dressing.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Frequently Asked Questions
With the dressing on it, it will last 1-2 days in the refrigerator. Without the dressing it will last 3-4 days. Keep in an airtight container and refrigerated.
I have only made this salad with raw broccoli. If you don’t like raw broccoli you can blanch it in a pot of boiling salted water. Just add the broccoli to the boiling water and let it cook for one minute. Remove, drain and run cool water over it. Add to recipe as directed. This will make the broccoli more tender and you will have less crunch to your salad.
Yes it does. You won’t notice any difference in flavor. They are both delicious.
Check out more of my other favorite broccoli recipes:
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Broccoli Crunch Salad
Ingredients
- 1 large head broccoli cut into small pieces
- 4-6 green onions sliced
- 1 lb. bacon cooked crisp and in small pieces
- 2 packages of Ramen noodles crushed. Throw away the seasoning packet
- 4 Tbsp melted butter
- 1 cup pecans chopped
Dressing
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3/4 Tbsp soy sauce
Instructions
- Mix butter, nuts and crushed noodles together. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake until lightly brown at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Stir several times for even browning. Set aside to cool.
- Mix together chopped broccoli, onions, bacon and noodle/nut mixture.
- Mix together the dressing ingredients. Mix well to dissolve sugar.
- Toss with dressing right before serving.
Tips & Notes:
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Nutrition Facts:
Originally posted May 2, 2012
Steve says
I subbed out the red wine vinegar with apple cider vinegar, added a bag of coleslaw, and dried cranberries. Otherwise, this was delish!!!
Mary says
Finally, a raw broccoli salad that is not the standard one with a mayo dressing, raisins, sunflower seeds, etc. This salad is excellent and different!
anne c. says
This was SO good but I did change the dressing up a bit. I thought those measurements would make too much dressing. I don’t like my salad swimming. I used barely 1/2 cup oil, 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, teaspoon soy sauce, 1/2 cup sugar, and whisked that all together. Really spectacular. Who knew toasted ramen noodles was such a treat!!! Where has this trick been all my life!?