No mayo, no bacon, and no missing flavor because this baby is packed with crunchy-creamy plant goodness! Featuring purple cabbage, broccoli, raisins, almonds, green onions, and a creamy vegan almond-miso-orange dressing.
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This salad (and many many variations of) has become a staple in our house. The dressing is wonderful – I think it is the little hint of onion/shallots that make it 🙂
Kelly
Guys. It’s me and this broccoli salad here, and we are at your summertime service.
Crunchy, healthy, saucy, delicious things ahead.
Before we embrace the healthiness of this updated broccoli salad, let’s give a little love to the good old fashioned broccoli salad.
Yes, BROCCOLI SALAD. This is the food of my upbringing. I’m talking about the variety of broccoli salad that is thick with a sweet mayo-based dressing and loaded with plenty of bacon and sunflower seeds and raisins – the one that is so retro and amazing in the way that only a mayo-and-bacon-based salad can be. And in summer? I mean, basically any pot-luck, graduation party, or picnic-esque functions in my beloved small town Minnesota? You know there’s gonnabe broccoli salad out there in the wild, and you know we’re all gonnabe lovin it.
HOW TO MAKE OUR BROCCOLI SALAD:
My heart has nothing but love for the original broccoli salad. I’m not looking to replace it.
And to be honest, I’m not even expecting to win over the broccoli-salad-makers of small town Minnesota who kept my mayo salad quota full for most of my childhood. That’s okay. I won’t feel bad. There’s room for old and new at our table.
This can be its own thing, really, can’t it?
It’s a modern twist on the classic old school broccoli salad and it’s healthy and plant based and colorful and, I mean, I might be a tiny bit biased, but it’s also REALLY DELICIOUS to the point where you are willing to look past the embarrassment of pulling it out of the fridge for a midnight snack in order to taste the creamy, cold, salty-sweet crunch of the broccoli, raisins, and almond orange dressing.
It’s the kind of food that gets me most excited in all the world. ♡ Healthy meets color, texture, flavor, and ease of preparation. Diving in NOW.
The sauce starts with almond butter and miso to give it a heavy, creamy-like texture and weight that will cling to the broccoli and get all up in between those little crunchy ingredients. Then we work that sauce with shallots, canola oil, and orange juice.
So here goes. Throw the gang into the food processor and we’re off.
Super creamy, salty, delicious sauce that is mild and smooth in flavor – check.
Pour over super healthy ingredients like broccoli, almonds, cabbage, and raisins – check.
Toss together and find yourself at midnight eating the leftovers cold straight out of the fridge – CHECK.
Broccoli salad, I love you I love you I love you so much for summer.
Broccoli Salad with Creamy Almond Dressing
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Description
Healthy Broccoli Salad – non-mayo-based vegan goodness! With purple cabbage, raisins, almonds, green onions, and almond butter dressing.
Ingredients
For the Salad:
- 2 heads broccoli, cut into small florets
- 2 cups chopped purple cabbage
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 1/2 cup chopped green onions
For the Miso Orange Dressing
- 2/3 cup orange juice
- 2 tablespoons miso
- 2 tablespoons almond butter
- 1 shallot
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
Instructions
- Toss all the salad ingredients together in a bowl.
- Pulse the dressing ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Pour over the salad ingredients and toss to combine.
- Serve immediately! Add more orange juice to add more moisture as needed.
Notes
Miso Substitute: We’ve subbed in soy sauce for the miso and it works great!
We’ve made this several times and we liked it with a handful of cooked quinoa thrown in for good measure as well as a little bit of crumbled bacon as a throwback to the original broccoli salad. 🙂
If you like salads with a lot of dressing, be sure to double up on the dressing for this one.
Also, if you don’t have access to miso, you could just use almond butter in place of the miso but be sure to compensate with additional salt to taste.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Category: Lunch
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: healthy broccoli salad, vegan broccoli salad, broccoli salad recipe
Thank you to Simply Orange for partnering with us for this post! For more Simply Orange recipes, be sure to follow them on Facebook.
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our best healthy summer salads page. Check it out!
Going to make this today! How long will it keep in the fridge?
This recipe looks amazing! Just one question, what’s Miso??
Miso is a paste you *should* be able to find at most grocery stores – it’s made from soybeans!
Loved it, dressing is scrumptious
We LOVE this salad! I usually sub Brianna’s Poppyseed salad dressing for the Miso Orange dressing, but I plan to try that soon. Thanks!
What other oils might sub for canola? Thanks!
Olive oil or avocado oil will work!
Delicious! This salad has so many interesting flavors & textures and the dressing is amazing. A 10 out of 10!
instead of using almond butter..can i use peanut butter?? and miso since i cant find it here in our country what is the other option? im so pleased if you reply my question
So delicious! I’ll be making this on the regular.
This salad is delicious! We enjoyed it for dinner tonight with tofu steaks and brown rice. Loved the flavours.
Long-time reader, first-time commenter here. Just wanted to leave a review for this recipe since I think it deserves higher than 4.6 stars — it’s probably my favorite on this site! I loveee a nutty sauce, shallots, and dried fruit in salads so this has it all for me. I make it for my spouse and I for work lunches and it keeps nicely all week, and I’m still sad to be done eating it when the week is over!
Thanks so much for the comment, Rebecca! We’re so glad you’re a fan of the salad!
This salad looks SO delicious, but I wanted to ask a question before I make it. If I just squeeze oranges for the juice, is that going to be too acidic?
That will work just fine, Kristin! Enjoy!
FIRST YOU WRITE: ‘Miso Substitute: We’ve subbed in soy sauce for the miso and it works great!’, THEN YOU STATE: ‘Also, if you don’t have access to miso, you could just use almond butter in place of the miso but be sure to compensate with additional salt to taste.’ — WHY THE DIFFERENCE?,FOR SMALL AMOUNTS OF MISO USE SOY SAUCE AND LARGER AMOUNTS USE ALMOND BUTTER?
PLEASE CLARIFY FOR ME — THX
Hi there! If you don’t have miso at home, we’d just recommend a salty substitute so either soy sauce or salted almond butter could work. 🙂
Any idea how this would work made ahead? It sounds delicious!
You could prep everything ahead of time for the salad and just drizzle the dressing and the almonds on right before serving.
This was delicious and easy! The dressing is so good! I had to sub mixed nut butter for almond butter and fresh squeezed juice but it still turned out great. Leftovers even better than 1st day!
So glad to hear you enjoyed this, Mary!
Delicious!!! I subs the miso for tahini and added yellow bell pepper and avocado. Aso used freshly squeezed orange juice. Omg it is out of this world.
YUM! 😋
How many calories is the dressing
?
The dressing alone provides about 75 calories/serving.
I love your recipes and tried few of those. they are delicious and thanks so much for posting it for everyone to try!!!!
Can the dressing be added to the salad in advance of serving
Hi Maureen! Should be just fine – I’d make it 2-3 days in advance at most.
Oops, I meant to post this as my own question, not as a reply to someone else’s comment!
This looks amazing! I don’t have miso on hand and I see you recommend just doubling up on the almond butter but could I possibly use fish sauce? Or too salty? Wrong flavor?
We would actually sub in soy sauce for the miso!
The dressing is delicious but a little salty. I think my miso was a little old. Any suggestions on what to add to it to mellow it out? Thanks
WOW, just made this. SOOO good. How long do you think it will keep in the fridge? I made it hoping to take it to work for lunch tomorrow and Tuesday. Thanks!
It will keep for a few days in the fridge!
I found 3 types of miso, yellow, red or white. Which one is best for this recipe? Sounds like white or yellow are milder and may be better suited?
How long will this hold up in the fridge for leftovers if mixed with the dressing? Or should I divide and mix just before serving?
I made this yesterday for a family birthday get-together. My mother-in-law said it was the best broccoli salad she’s ever had, which is high praise since she is an incredible cook! Other people said they liked the “lightness” of it (not weighed down by mayo) and the subtle sweetness from the orange juice. I will be making this again for sure.
Do you think this would hold up well for meal prep? I would love to make this ahead of time for lunches throughout the week but want to make sure it’d hold up… thanks in advance for any insight!