In my house, summer = salad. Salads of all sorts…lettuce based, Cucumber and Tomato, potato, various types of slaw and broccoli of course! And although Stuart isn’t a huge fan of broccoli, he’ll eat just about anything covered in my Herby Ranch Dressing.
My Herby Ranch Dressing makes this salad creamy, with a bit of crunch from sliced almonds and a bit of sweet from organic dried cranberries that I get from my local farmer’s market. Of course, you can replace my dressing with your favorite ranch dressing as long as its dairy and sugar free, and if you can’t find compliant dried cranberries you use compliant raisin instead.
Now for the ‘how to’ portion of this Creamy Broccoli Salad post!
I start by removing the florets from a large crown of broccoli and steam them (I don’t like eating raw broccoli, and steaming it makes it easier to digest). I then simply combine all of the ingredients, reserving half of the almonds.
After refrigerating the salad for an hour or so, I garnish it with the remainder of almonds (and maybe a few more dried cranberries)…and serve!
- 1 large crown of broccoli, stem removed, florets cut into bite sized pieces
- ½ sweet bell pepper, sliced
- ¼ cup red onion, diced
- 1 cup of halved cherry tomatoes
- ¼ cup sugar free dried cranberries (or raisins)
- 2 Tbs sliced almonds
- ½ cup of Herby Ranch Dressing
- Salt and pepper
- In a glass bowl, wash the broccoli florets, and them steam them in the microwave for 2 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients (except 1 Tbs of the almonds) to cover everything completely in the dressing.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Just before serving, sprinkle with the remaining 1 Tbs of almonds.