This Roasted Broccoli Salad is the perfect salad for fall, winter, or spring. It's made with roasted broccoli, lots of fresh veggies and herbs, crunchy pecans, and creamy almond dijon dressing. It's easy to make, really flavorful, and can be served both on its own or as a side.
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Why You'll Love This Salad
- Crispy broccoli - Roasting broccoli in the oven with enough space around it yields crispy crunchy broccoli florets that are perfect for this salad!
- Creamy dressing - The dressing for this salad is almond butter based instead of olive oil based for extra creaminess. The almond butter tastes amazing in combination with dijon mustard and lemon juice. It's definitely a must-try!
- Main or a side - With the almond butter-based dressing, this salad is filling enough to be served on its own but you can also serve it as a side. Add some roasted chicken or salmon to the salad to up the protein even more!
- Vegan-friendly - This salad is 100% vegan friendly! You can keep it vegan or add some feta cheese, soft goat cheese, or roasted salmon for extra flavor. Vegan cheeses would also work really well!
Ingredients
- Broccoli - Make sure to choose firm, bright green broccoli with no yellow spots.
- Lettuce - The recipe calls for romaine lettuce because the crunchiness and freshness go really well with all the other textures and flavors. If you want to make the salad more fall and winter appropriate, you can use kale (my favorite is baby kale) or spinach, or even a mix of all three!
- Veggies - Cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and red onion all add a ton of flavor to this dish. You could also use bell peppers, spring onion
- Toasted pecans - These add a nice crunch to the salad as well as protein and healthy fats. If you don't have any on hand, you can add walnuts, almonds, or pumpkin or sunflower seeds instead.
- Creamy almond dressing - The dressing is made with almond butter, extra virgin olive oil, dijon mustard, lemon juice, maple syrup, and hot sauce. I recommend always using freshly squeezed lemon juice.
More Broccoli Recipes
If you have lots of broccoli to use up or just want to try more new recipes that use broccoli, definitely give the four recipes linked below a try! The miso broccoli is one of the most popular recipes on the blog and my personal favorite side!
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400F (200C). Chop a head of broccoli into florets and add them to a baking sheet.
- Drizzle the broccoli with avocado oil and season with sea salt and pepper.
- Roast the broccoli for 20-25 minutes until slightly charred and crispy. The more you spread out the broccoli on your baking sheet, the crispier it will get.
- While the broccoli is roasting, make the salad dressing.
- To a small bowl or a jar, add almond butter, extra virgin olive oil, dijon mustard, freshly squeezed lemon juice, maple syrup, hot sauce, sea salt, and pepper.
- Whisk everything together until smooth. You can either leave it as is or add water until you reach desired consistency.
- You can use either raw or roasted pecans in the salad. If you go with roasted, I recommend roasting them after you finish roasting the broccoli. Just lower the heat to 350F (175C) and toast the pecans for about 15 minutes while you prepare the rest of the salad.
- Into a large bowl, add romaine lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, roasted broccoli, toasted pecans, and fresh dill.
- Drizzle everything with the creamy almond dressing and toss to combine everything well. The salad is best served right away.
Serving Storing
You can serve the salad on its own, as a side, or add more protein to make it into a meal. Roasted salmon or chickpeas (as a vegan option) would both work really well.
This salad is best served and enjoyed right away while the romaine lettuce is still crisp and the broccoli nice and crispy. The longer it sits in the dressing, the less crispy it will be. You can store it in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days. Any leftover dressing will keep in an airtight jar in the fridge for 3-4 days.
FAQs
Yes, you can use sunflower butter instead and add toasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds!
This salad is best eaten in the first 1-2 days. After that, it will get wilted more rapidly. You can always make more dressing and store the vegetables separately or make them fresh to serve. The dressing stays fresh in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Similar Salad Recipes
Below are four delicious salads that are fall and winter-appropriate and are similar to this broccoli salad in terms of flavors. My current favorite is probably the quinoa chickpea salad. It's PERFECT for meal prep! If you'd like to see all the latest salads, head over to the Salads category.
📖 Recipe
Roasted Broccoli Salad with Creamy Almond Dressing
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 2-4 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: Roasting
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This Roasted Broccoli Salad is the perfect salad for fall, winter, or spring. It's easy to make and packed with a ton of flavor!
Ingredients
Salad:
- 1 head of broccoli, cut into florets
- 1 tbsp avocado oil
- ¼ tsp each sea salt and pepper
- 1-2 heads romaine lettuce, roughly chopped (depending on the size, about 5 cups)
- 1 english cucumber, diced
- 1-2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- ½ medium red onion, thinly sliced into half moons
- ¼ cup finely chopped fresh dill
- ½ cup toasted or raw pecans, roughly chopped (see notes)
Dressing:
- 2 tbsp almond butter
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (1-2 lemons)
- 1 tsp maple syrup (optional to balance the flavors)
- ½ tsp hot sauce
- ¼ tsp each sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- water (optional, to reach desired consistency)
Instructions
Salad:
- Preheat your oven to 400F (200C).
- Add broccoli florets to a large baking sheet, drizzle with avocado oil, and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat well. Try to spread the broccoli out as much as possible so they’ll get crispier.
- Roast in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until slightly charred and crispy.
- While the broccoli is roasting, make the dressing (see instructions below).
- To a large mixing bowl add romaine lettuce, cucumber, cherry tomatoes red onion, fresh dill, pecans, and roasted broccoli. Drizzle with the dressing and toss everything together until well-mixed.
- Serve garnished with extra fresh dill or toasted pecans.
Dressing:
- Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl or a jar and store in the fridge until ready to use.
Notes
Toasted pecans: Preheat the oven to 350F. Spread raw pecans on a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
Extras: Feta, soft goat cheese, chicken, salmon, tofu, or chickpeas.
Storing: Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. The romaine lettuce will wilt down in the dressing pretty quickly so it’s best eaten right away or the next day.
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Elaine
So delicious and so healthy! This is THE perfect salad for me - my favorite ingredients (talk about that broccoli!) and easy-to-follow instructions, too. 👍
Marta
I serve this roasted broccoli salad as a side dish with chicken thighs and it complimented them so well. I loved the almond dressing especially!
Bernice
What an excellent salad. It's so full of delicious veggies and has the perfect vegan dressing. I can't wait to share this one with my daughter who eats vegan on a regular basis.
Jessica
This dressing was exceptionally tasty! And my kids loved the crispy broccoli, they said it was much better than raw ;) A new favorite family salad, thanks!!
Cathleen
Oh wow, I love this broccoli salad!! My husband requested that I make it again tomorrow, thanks so much for this recipe! :)
Lisa
I love the texture of this salad. Crispy broccoli, creamy dressing then crunchy pecans go together so well!
Loreto and Nicoletta
This salad screams. Texture flavor. Great combination of sweet and savory. Love the creamy dressing with that kick. The roasting of the broccoli 🥦 is brilliant. A great side dish, I would even have this as a full meal
Jacqueline Debono
I love roasted broccoli but usually just serve it as is as a side dish. Love the idea of using it in a salad instead. This recipe is a keeper!
Tammy
I really love creamy dressings but it's hard to find a healthy creamy one and this one fits the bill. It sounds so delicious I cannot wait to give it a try! Fabulous salad ^_^
Leslie
I LOVE this salad but I LOVE this salad dressing even more! Perfect combination for the best salad ever!