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Our Amish Broccoli Salad features crisp fresh veggies and savory bits of crispy fried bacon all tossed in a creamy, tangy, sweet dressing.
It’s no surprise that we’re obsessed with Amish recipes. Anytime we come across an Amish cookbook at a flea market or garage sale, we have to at least flip through it…but let’s be honest – it often comes home with us!
While we aren’t Amish ourselves, we do love their food and sharing some of their recipes, like this Amish Broccoli Salad, made with fresh broccoli and cauliflower, bits of crispy fried bacon, creamy shredded cheddar, and a sweet, tangy dressing!
A few of our other Amish favorites include our Amish macaroni salad, Amish breakfast casserole (the surprise ingredient makes it so good), and the ever popular Amish egg noodles!
♥ What We Love About This Recipe:
- All those fresh, crisp vegetables! This is a great way to get some nutritious veggies into your diet.
- Bacon makes everything better and it’s a great way to add savory flavor to this cold salad. It tastes so good with the creamy sweet dressing!
- This one is easy to customize! Add some frozen peas, stir in some chopped red onion, add more or less sugar to taste…you can’t mess this one up!
- This is great for meal prep. It’ll last for about 5 days in the fridge so you can pull it out for dinner as an easy side dish.
Ingredient Notes:
Salad Ingredients:
Broccoli & Cauliflower – You’ll need a fresh head of broccoli and cauliflower. No frozen stuff here! Fresh means nice crisp veggies. You just can’t get the same taste or texture if you use frozen.
Cheddar Cheese – We prefer freshly grated cheddar, but you can buy a bag of shredded if you prefer.
Bacon – Some fried and crumbled bacon will add savory flavors to the salad. We usually have some made ahead of time for recipes like this. Try this easy air fryer bacon to keep things simple and mess free!
Dressing Ingredients:
Mayonnaise & Sour Cream – These will form the base of the creamy, tangy dressing that you’ll use to coat the broccoli cauliflower salad.
Sugar – The sugar will add some traditional sweet flavor to this Amish salad, but I’m not using as much as many recipes call for. We don’t like it as sweet as some. If you do like it sweeter you can increase up to 3/4 of a cup.
Apple Cider Vinegar – This is going to add some tang and balance out the sweetness.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations:
- Add frozen peas to this Amish broccoli salad! It’ll add little pops of sweetness.
- Add some diced red onion for a bit of bite and crunch.
- Use all broccoli or all cauliflower in this recipe.
- Any variety of cheese will work well here. Colby jack is tasty.
- Add a touch of heat by stirring in some red pepper flakes.
- Swap the sour cream for 0% fat Greek yogurt. This will cut the fat down and add some protein.
Step by Step Instructions:
Step One – Chop the broccoli and cauliflower into small, bite-sized pieces.
Step Two – Add the veggies, bacon, and cheddar to a large mixing bowl.
Step Three – Whisk together the mayo, sour cream, ACV, sugar, and salt to make the dressing.
Step Four – Pour the dressing over the broccoli salad and give it a good stir. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Recipe FAQs:
We add the broccoli and cauliflower to this salad completely raw so that it is nice and crispy in the salad. If you prefer a softer vegetable, you can blanch it first.
Yes! Actually the salad is much better after it has chilled for awhile so you can definitely make it up to a few days in advance.
Be sure to dry your broccoli and cauliflower well after rinsing them so that the extra liquid doesn’t make your Amish broccoli salad too watery.
Amish Broccoli Salad
Ingredients
- 1 medium head broccoli
- 1 medium head cauliflower
- 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 8 slices bacon fried and crumbled
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup sugar see notes
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Chop the broccoli and cauliflower into bite-sized pieces. Add to a large mixing bowl with the cheddar and bacon. Stir to combine.
- Add the mayonnaise, sour cream, sugar, vinegar, and salt to a small bowl and whisk to combine.
- Pour the dressing over the broccoli and stir to coat.
- Refrigerate for 2-3 hours before serving.
Sue Graessle says
I love this recipe. I like to add green onion.
Karly Campbell says
Great addition!
Elizabeth Purvis says
Love the recipe and you were true to your word! I got the recipe in under 30 seconds ( a first for me) .So thank you and my family thanks you for something so tasty and delicious!
Maria Bonacci says
We make this salad all the time! It’s so good but we didn’t know it was an Amish recipe. It’s also good with a little bit of red onion 🙂