Broccoli Cashew Salad with Apples, Pears, and Cranberries is tossed with the most delicious homemade creamy salad dressing. This is an easy and healthy recipe packed with fruits and veggies.
The salad has an amazing texture thanks to the crunchy cashews, fresh vegetables, and fruits! The easy creamy salad dressing is made with mayonnaise, sour cream (or kefir or Greek yogurt), honey, and lemon juice! If you love broccoli salad, be sure to check out these 2 delicious salads: broccoli bacon salad and creamy broccoli and cauliflower salad.
This broccoli cashew salad is a healthy recipe that you can make any time of the year, but especially during the winter season to get a boost of antioxidants, vitamins, and fiber! It's easy-to-make, and it keeps well refrigerated. A great choice for family weeknight dinners, barbecues, potlucks, and parties!
Salad dressing
Whenever I make a broccoli salad, I love combining mayo and sour cream together for a creamy salad dressing and it's a lovely flavor combination! If you don't like sour cream (or don't have it), feel free to use kefir or Greek yogurt in place of sour cream for an equally good flavor! I also add lemon juice, honey, and salt. Make sure to soften the honey (by heating it up gently) before adding it to other salad dressing ingredients, to make sure it blends in smoothly.
How to make broccoli cashew salad
Broccoli salad is all about chopping up the fresh veggies and fruits and then combining them in a large bowl with a salad dressing. That's it!
- Cut broccoli into small, bite-sized pieces.
- Chop up a cored apple, cored pear, red onion.
- In a large bowl, combine chopped up broccoli, apples, pear, red onions, cranberries, and cashews.
- In a small bowl, stir together mayonnaise, sour cream (or kefir or Greek yogurt), lemon juice, honey, and salt. Tip: honey should be soft and runny. Warm it up if needed, so that it mixes easily.
- Add in the dressing and stir everything together.
Variations and substitutions
- Cauliflower. If you want to mix things up, use an equal amount of cauliflower to replace the half amount of broccoli.
- Nuts. Many types of nuts will work here. Use pecans, peanuts, walnuts, pine nuts, or pistachios instead of cashews.
- Dried fruit. Dried cranberries work great in this recipe, and so do dried cherries, raisins, or dried blueberries.
- Fresh Fruit. The mix of fresh apples and pears works beautifully here, but you can go just with apples or just with pears.
- Salad dressing. For the salad dressing, combine together mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice, honey, and salt. You can lighten up the dressing by replacing some of the mayo or sour cream with kefir or Greek yogurt.
Other Broccoli Salad Recipes to Try
- Broccoli Bacon Salad
- Creamy Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad
- Creamy Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad with Corn and Bacon
- Broccoli Bacon Salad with Pecans, Cranberries, Raisins
- Broccoli Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad
Broccoli Cashew Salad with Apples and Pears
Ingredients
Salad:
- 5 cups broccoli florets chopped into small bites
- 1 apple cored and diced
- 1 pear cored and diced
- ¼ cup red onion diced
- 1 cup cashews toasted or roasted
- 1 cup dried cranberries
Creamy Salad Dressing:
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup sour cream or kefir or Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- ¼ cup honey softened or warmed up
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine together chopped broccoli, diced apple, diced pear, diced red onion, cashews (toasted or roasted) and dried cranberries.
- In a small bowl, stir together mayonnaise, sour cream (or kefir or Greek yogurt), lemon juice, honey, and salt. Note that honey should be soft and runny, warm it up if needed, so that it mixes easily. Whisk the ingredients until well combined and smooth. Add salt if needed.
- Add the dressing to the broccoli salad and stir everything together.
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
I just made this for the second time. The first for a crowd and I’m sad to say they demolished it. There were no leftovers!
Had multiple compliments. This is so quick and easy and oh so delicious. It’s definitely going to be a regular on the menu. Thank you!
Dianne, I am super flattered by your comment - thank you! So glad this recipe was a success! Thank you for taking the time to share this positive feedback! 🙂
Fantastic salad!! I added a few spring greens and omitted the onion. My husband raved as well. Thanks for the recipe.
Linda, your comment made my day! 🙂 I am so flattered! Adding spring greens is a great idea!
I was looking for a side dish to serve with my mini chicken pot pies. Saw this recipe and thought it’d be great and it was beyond perfect. My dinner crowd raved about. I made an extra big batch and nothing was left. The dressing is so simple and delicious. One side note…I had all the ingredients on hand except for broccoli…I had a couple heads of organic cabbage and used that in place of broccoli…yes I know… I can’t call it broccoli salad but just letting everyone know it was amazing with cabbage too. I will definitely make it again….with broccoli next time.
Patty, I am so, so happy you enjoyed this salad! 🙂 Thank you for stopping by and sharing such a positive and uplifting comment - comments like that make my day and make me want to do more recipes! 🙂 And, Thank you for sharing your changes about using the cabbage - it's very helpful to me and other readers, too!
I’d like to make this. It looks so good! Do I buy unsalted or salted cashews? Should they be roasted in the oven before putt Salad together?
Thanks
Either salted or unsalted (or even flavored) cashews would work. What I did is I used raw cashews and I toasted them in the oven.
Love, love, love! Just made this and served it on top of some arugula, spinach, romaine as I have a lot of greens and trying to get more in my diet. Really great recipe. 🙂
Jacquelyn, I just love how you served this salad over more veggies such as arugula and spinach - what a great way to eat more veggies, love it! Thanks for your positive comment and the 5-star review! 🙂
You can make the salad ahead of time and then add the apples, pears and nuts right before serving
yes, you can!
Made this salad for one g on Shabbat. Yummy! The dressing is just wonderful and so simple to make.
Vicki, I am glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for the comment! 🙂