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 (firm, not soft), 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.
Notes
- How to roast raw cashews. I used raw cashews for this recipe, and I toasted them in the oven. Roast raw cashews in the preheated oven at 350 F on a rimmed baking sheet for 10 minutes or longer. Unlike other nuts, cashews can take more than 10 minutes to get roasted. They should change color and turn rich golden brown. Depending on your oven and your oven settings, that can take between 10 and 15 minutes (or even up to 20 minutes in some ovens). Move them around once or twice so that they roast evenly on all sides. You can also purchase pre-roasted cashews - they do not need roasting.
- Pears. Choose pears that are firmer in texture and to the touch. Otherwise, they might get mushy in this salad. I used firm pears without any soft spots or visible bruising on the skin. The same applies to apples.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
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.
Made this dish last night as a side dish at a group dinner - it was a hit! Very tasty and I didn't augment the recipe at all.
So glad this recipe was a success, Melanie! 🙂
we made this for lunch & it was very delicious, refreshing & like the light salad dressing!! It’s a keeper! Thank You for sharing this recipe!!
Thank you, Ronnie, for commenting and leaving such a great review! ❤️
Very easy to make and tastes so good!
So glad! Thank you for your review, Sandy! 🙂
Can I pan toast the cashews until they are golden?
Yes, I always do that if I use raw cashews.
Delicious twist of a broccoli salad!! Next time I’ll cut back on the honey (just a personal preference) and of course I added lots of cracked black pepper. I’m loving all your recipes! They’re giving us so many fresh flavours and keeping our taste buds guessing 🙂 Thank you!
Thank you, Danielle, for such a positive comments!! Glad you're enjoying my recipes. 🙂
Your directions are very clear and simple. I can’t wait to make this tomorrow for Mother’s Day. I already know it’s going to be delicious!
I hope you loved it! 🙂
This might be a stupid question but do you cook the brocoli?
Hi Jenny! I didn't cook the broccoli here, it's raw. You can blanch it briefly by dipping it briefly into boiling water - but I didn't even do that. 🙂
Your directions are very clear and simple. I can’t wait to make this tomorrow for Mother's Day. I already know it’s going to be delicious.
To date, we've made 4 of your salad recipes for church potlucks. This Broccoli Cashew salad was requested for an event that was put on called "Dinner With the Doctor". We've taken this salad three times already. We double the recipe of course, and use both cauliflower and broccoli, and red and green apples, but no pears. We use vegan versions of the mayo and sour cream as several of our members are vegan. We usually get asked for the recipe when we take your salads. I just give them the link to your fb page.
Thank you, Linda, for such a wonderful review! 🙂 Glad my salad recipes are part of your church potlucks. 🙂 And, thank you for spreading the word about my site - I so appreciate it.
Hello just a few questions about your recipe. It says 30 minutes for prep and 10 minutes to cook. What is supposed to be cooked? It seems like you chop everything up mix all dressing ingredients and put it together. Again what is cooked? It says cashews should be toasted or roasted is it referring to the cashews? If it is there are no directions on how to do that. Very poor directions.
Julie, thanks for your input! I have updated the recipe with the directions on how to roast raw cashews. I left 10 minutes cooking time unchanged to account for roasting raw cashews. But, if you purchase pre-roasted cashews, roasting step is not necessary, obviously.
How long does this last in refrigerator?
Julie, I would keep this for up to 3 days in the fridge.
Is there enough lemon in the dressing to keep the apples from browning if I kept this as a left over or hold over for another day meal?
Melody, there is not enough lemon for that, so I would just toss diced apples and pears in extra lemon juice before adding them to the salad.
omg. i would so love to be able to read this recipe. unfortunately the ad keeps blocking it. i'm so done with this. so sad because i think you are a good cook.
Shelly, you can try using a "print" button for cleaner view of the recipe card.
Made this tonight and it was a hit. Yummy and delicious.i used yogurt in the dressing
Hil, I am so glad you enjoyed this salad. Thank you for your feedback about using yogurt! ❤️
Made this today, a little sweet for my liking, so next time will put a little less honey in it.
Bernadine, glad you liked it! ❤️ Yes, reduce the amount of honey - there is plenty of sweetness coming from fruit, too!
Delicious! Have made it twice in the same week as my husband really loved it.
Jocelyne, I am so happy you both like this salad! It's healthy and delish!!