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Broccoli Salad is nothing new, but this one has grapes, toasted pecans, bacon, white cheddar and a warm bacon vinaigrette. SO GOOD that if you’re like me, you’re going to want to eat the whole bowl yourself! It’s the perfect side dish for grilling. I can’t wait till you try this recipe: your friends and family will crave it all year round.

An overhead shot of a plate of Broccoli Salad.

The view from overhead.

Crunchy, crisp, sweet, nutty and slightly smoky. Oh, baby, oh, baby. The flavors!!! We fell in love with this salad at first bite.

About the Broccoli in this Broccoli Salad:

Use the stems, and the florets, too. To prepare it: slice the head from the stalk. Then peel off any tough outer stem. Slice each stalk in half, lengthwise, and then slice each stem into 1/2 ” moons. Blanch them the same amount of time as you do the florets.

Below is what happens when you generously salt your broccoli water with Pink Himalayan salt. It’s not pretty, but I like to keep things real. It worked just fine, flavor-wise.

When you salt water with Pink Himalayan salt, your water looks kind of pink and scummy.

When you salt water with Pink Himalayan salt, this is what your pot of boiling water looks like: kind of pink and scummy. But it didn’t hurt the flavor of the broccoli any, thankfully. Just not pretty!

What Does “blanch” Mean?

Blanching is scalding vegetables in boiling water for a short time, followed by quick, thorough cooling in ice water. Blanching stops enzyme actions which otherwise cause a loss of flavor, color and texture that occur with longer cooking.

Dropping the broccoli into the boiling salted water.

I used a “spider” (the name of that tool) to lower the broccoli into the water, because nobody likes to get splashed by hot boiling water.

Briefly boiling broccoli. Because I like alliteration. And you only blanch it a bit: you want the broccoli to turn out crisp tender. That takes about 30 seconds to one minute in the boiling water.

After boiling it for a minute, you chill down the broccoli in an ice bath. That’s what blanching means. A brief cook, and then a plunge into a bowl of iced water to set the pretty green color.

One Important Note About Blanching:

It’s really important after you have stopped the cooking process with the ice water, that you then remove the broccoli from its ice bath. Why, you might ask? The broccoli needs to drain well, or your salad will be watery, and that will really cut the intensity of the flavor of the dressing. So DRAIN the broccoli well. Spread it out on a towel to dry. No Watery Dressing for YOU!

About the Grapes:

Any color will taste fine, but red is really pretty with green broccoli, and save yourself some time by getting seedless grapes. (Unless you have seeded on hand, and with the cost of gasoline…use what you have!)

About the Nuts/Pecans:

You really can use any type of nut you like. Heck, you can omit the nuts altogether if someone you’re serving it to is allergic. But I love pecans, and that’s why I use them. And I have an excellent source with whom I’m affiliated who has the very BEST pecans I know of. So please, by all means, check out the nuts and the prices from Millican Pecans. They are divine, delicious, and you can have them shipped right to your door. Also, they make a Sweet and Spicy pecan that would be killer in this dish, as well. (I just used the regular ones.) Please use my coupon code: SUSAW100

Millican Pecans have been featured on Martha Stewart, Food Network, Southern Living, and Bon Appetit, and in my pantry! They really are amazing, and the prices are right, too.

I toast the pecans in this recipe in my cast iron skillet, right on top of the stove. It only takes about a couple of minutes over medium heat, and the most important tip I have is to USE YOUR NOSE as much as you use your eyes in determining when they are done. They should smell nutty!

Toasting the pecans in a cast iron skillet.

I’m going to use that cast iron skillet next to fry the bacon in, so keep it out on the stovetop.

The toasted pecans, set aside in a bowl.

What About the Bacon?

To make this salad vegetarian friendly, you could omit the bacon. (Susan begins weeping openly.) Just heat up a bit more olive oil in your skillet, to make the vinaigrette.

But who wants to omit the bacon?

At my house, we smoke our own bacon, and so I have some fairly strong affection for bacon, so don’t take my tears as a slam against anyone who chooses to omit it. It’s not! I just love our bacon so much. Here’s a link to the process of how we make our bacon, just in case you’re interested.

When you cut up bacon into little squares, those little squares are called lardons. So if you’re feeling very much the gourmand, please, call your little squares of bacon, lardons. I do.

And here’s a secret: if you don’t want to cut up a lot of little squares of bacon, you can just fry the strips whole, take them out to drain on a paper towel, and crumble them into the salad at the end. And no one will know they’re not having true lardons. Because they’ll be having BACON. So who cares?

Frying up the little pieces of bacon. Or if you prefer, read this next part with a French accent: fry up zee leetle lardons.

How to Make the Broccoli Salad Warm Vinaigrette:

Remove the little lardons from the cast iron skillet and let them drain on a paper towel.

Whisk mustard and vinegar into bacon fat and olive oil to make the dressing.

To make the vinaigrette, you simply turn the heat to low, and whisk in the mustard and vinegar. Mine has never looked uniform in color. It kind of looks mottled. But no matter. It tastes great!

Then, you add in the toasted pecans, and the green onions, and continue stirring a bit.

Add green onions and pecans to the dressing in the skillet.

All Swim: All Broccoli Salad Ingredients in the Pool!!!

In a large salad bowl, combine the broccoli and the grapes.

Combining the broccoli and grapes.

Pour on the Warm Bacon Vinaigrette:

Sprinkle on the little lardons, and then pour in the vinaigrette.

Scraping the warm vinaigrette from the skillet, onto the salad.

Finally, sprinkle on the white cheddar. And you don’t have to use white cheddar. But I do, because it’s AWESOME. (I especially love Cabot, Seriously White Cheddar.) Can’t help myself.

Time to toss all that goodness together!

Sprinkling the cheese on the salad is the final touch, for this delicious broccoli salad with warm bacon vinaigrette.

Sprinkling the salad with white cheddar and tossing it is the last step, immediately before serving.

This broccoli salad recipe will be the side dish your family craves, all year round.

Yield: 4