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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 Cashew Salad with Apples and Pears
Ingredients
Salad:
- 5 cups broccoli florets chopped into small bites
- 1 large apple cored and diced
- 1 large 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.
Really, really good.
Karen, I am happy to hear that! Thank you for your feedback!
Do you have to steam the broccoli first?
I didn't, I used fresh broccoli. You can blanch it briefly.
Why does the recipe state 10 minutes cooking time? I don’t see where this needs to be cooked?!?
Any suggestion for a dressing without Mayo?
Here is a simple dressing without mayo:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup Greek yogurt or kefir (plain)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup honey , softened or warmed up
1/4 teaspoon salt
I've made it twice now and we love it! I don't like pears so we didn't use them we also put rotisserie chicken in it and make it a meal. Delicious!
Sherrie, so glad you liked this salad! Love the addition of rotisserie chicken! Practical and delicious!
I really loved this salad! I am making it for the second time. I found that it was a bit sweet, so I am reducing the honey by half. I used it for work lunches. I think I will add the dried fruit each day, as I go. Also, I tossed the cut apple and pear in lemon juice before adding them to the salad (which I had already dressed). They really didn't brown, too much. This is a new favorite!
Bobbi, I am so happy to hear this salad became a new favorite for you! Thank you for stopping by and sharing such a positive comment! 🙂
Love it…..added green olives instead of salt. Will def make again and again!!!
Happy you liked it! 🙂
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!
Delicious! The only changes I made were to blanch the broccoli and snap most of the cashews in half. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
I *blanched* the broccoli. Typo grr.
So glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thanks for the comment! 🙂
Made this last night with grilled chicken. I cannot eat dairy so substituted Coconut yogurt and don't like cashews so used pistachios instead. It turned out delish!! Not a heavy dressing so perfect for these hot summer days.
Glad you enjoyed it! Love the pistachios in this salad!
Do not steam the broccoli. This is a raw salad. Mmmm
I know this is an old post but I just made this and... oh my goodness! Why have I waited so long?!?? I LOVE this and am quite sure I will make it often this summer. Who am I kidding? Spring, Fall and Winter too! Love that it is meat-free. Thank you!!
This was delicious! A big hit with family and friends. I didn't have a ripe pear, so used two apples. Did not steam the broccoli. The dressing really makes it, I think. I served it as a luncheon entree to women friends, and had cooked, cut-up shrimp that folks could add to make it heartier--which everyone did. I imagine chicken would also be a good addition. Everyone wanted the recipe.