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 Apple, Pear, and Cranberries. The homemade dressing is made with mayonnaise, sour cream (or kefir or Greek yogurt), honey, and lemon juice! Easy and delicious broccoli salad - perfect for home dinners, potlucks, barbecues, and parties!
- 5 cups broccoli florets , chopped into small bites
- 1 apple , cored and diced
- 1 pear , cored and diced
- 1/4 cup red onion , diced
- 1 cup cashews , toasted or roasted
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup sour cream or kefir or Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/4 cup honey , softened or warmed up
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
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In a large bowl, combine together chopped broccoli, diced apple, diced pear, diced red onion, cashews (toasted or roasted) and dried cranberries.
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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.
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Add the dressing to the broccoli salad and stir everything together.
Can this be made ahead? Like a day?
I prefer to serve this right after I make this because sliced apples and pears right tend to turn brown otherwise.
Loved it… I doubled the recipe for a family dinner and everyone enjoyed it… and I had leftovers too since I made so much but rather have the extra than not enough! Will try it again with the dried cherries that sounds good too
Gretchen, I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing such positive feedback – I really appreciate it!! Dried cherries sound delicious in this salad, by the way!
I’ve made it twice with dried cherries instead of the cranberries, and we love it!!
Love the use of dried cherries!