Christmas salad is a healthy, colorful salad with all the colors of the holiday season – red, green, and white. It’s raw broccoli cauliflower salad with red onion and cherry tomatoes tossed in creamy dressing and topped with bacon.
This fresh bright salad can be enjoyed all year long and is perfect addition to the holiday dinner tables, potluck, or family gatherings.
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Christmas salad
- An easy to make a salad with simple ingredients.
- A tasty salad that uses ingredients that have colors of Christmas – cherry tomatoes for red, broccoli for green, and cauliflower for white.
- All vegetables used in the salad are raw, giving the salad a crunchy creamy bite.
- Creamy dressing brings this salad together making it fresh, bright, a little sweet, a little salty, and all the way delicious!
- If you haven’t eaten raw broccoli and cauliflower, try this broccoli cauliflower salad. The texture of the salad is amazing; it’s crisp, crunchy, and creamy.
- Creamy crunchy Christmas salad can be served as a side dish with any meal of your choice, it goes perfectly with roast meat.
Ingredients needed
Here’s what you’ll need-
- 1 head broccoli
- 1 head cauliflower
- 1 ½ to 2 cups cherry tomatoes
- 1 red onion
- ½ cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (optional, I skipped)
- 4 slices bacon, fried and crumbled
DRESSING:
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
- ½ teaspoon pepper (adjust to taste)
Broccoli & cauliflower:
No need to cook broccoli and cauliflower, this recipe uses raw broccoli and cauliflower. Raw vegetables add a crisp, crunch texture to the salad.
If you don’t like to eat raw vegetables, you can steam-cut florets of broccoli and cauliflower together in a steamer basket for 2 minutes. Make sure the steamer basket is not touching the water. And to make sure there is no moisture left, steamed vegetables should be spread on a kitchen towel for 15 minutes to drain off excess moisture.
Note steamed or partially cooked vegetables won’t have the crunch you would except in Christmas salad. The vegetables will turn soft when cooked.
Cherry tomatoes & red onion:
Cut ripe, firm cherry tomatoes into halves. You can use grape tomatoes, roma tomatoes cut into bite sized pieces.
Cut the red onion into thin slices. I like raw onion in my salad, if you don’t like the strong pungent taste of raw onion, you can soak sliced onion in vinegar or water for a few minutes. Then drain and use onion in the salad.
Bacon:
Optional but highly recommend you don’t skip it. Use real bacon, not the imitation bits. I cut raw bacon strips into small cubes, fry them in the pan, and use them in the salad.
Bacon also adds a touch of salty, savory taste to the salad which helps balance the sweet, creamy richness of the dressing.
Mayonnaise:
Use good quality mayonnaise. You can use any type of mayonnaise, full fat, light, or vegan mayonnaise.
Sour cream:
It gives Christmas salad dressing a smoother, creamier consistency that helps bring the salad together.
Apple cider vinegar:
Adds a touch of tang that helps cut the sweetness in the dressing.
Sugar:
Adding little sugar to the dressing makes it sweet and delicious.
Salt & pepper:
Season the salad and dressing with salt and freshly ground pepper of your choice.
How to make Christmas salad
Christmas salad calls for raw broccoli and cauliflower, no need to cook the vegetables.
- Cut raw bacon strips into small cubes, and fry in a pan until crispy and golden brown. Remove it onto a small bowl, set aside.
- Cut broccoli and cauliflower head into small florets.
- Into a large salad bowl add cut florets of broccoli, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, and sliced red onion.
- To make the salad dressing whisk together mayonnaise, sour cream, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper to taste.
- Pour dressing over salad. Toss gently until combined.
- Chill Christmas salad in the refrigerator for 1 hour before serving. Chilling helps salad develop flavors.
- Just before serving sprinkle crispy bacon bits on top and serve immediately.
Expert tips
- No need to cook broccoli and cauliflower florets. Keeping it raw gives the salad a crisp, crunchy texture.
- To have a uniform size of bacon crumbs, cut raw bacon strips into small cubes, and fry them in a pan until crispy and golden brown. Remove it into a small bowl. All crumbs will be uniform.
- Chill salad in the fridge for 1 hour before serving, so the salad has time to absorb and develop flavors.
FAQS
Yes, the Christmas salad recipe calls for fresh vegetables, both broccoli and cauliflower have to be fresh. Fresh vegetables have a crunch to them which is the best part about this salad.
No, please stay away from frozen broccoli or frozen cauliflower florets for this recipe. Frozen veggies don’t have the crunch that you want in this salad.
You can use grape tomatoes, Roma tomatoes are cut into bite-sized pieces.
Yes, you can make this salad a few hours ahead. Simply toss everything together and leave the salad in the fridge for a couple of hours until ready to serve.
If you want to make it a day before, toss all vegetables together and make the salad dressing, keep both separately in the fridge. When ready to serve toss salad with dressing and serve.
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📋Christmas Salad (Sweet Broccoli Cauliflower Salad)
Ingredients
- 1 head broccoli
- 1 head cauliflower
- 1 ½ to 2 cups cherry tomatoes
- 1 red onion
- ½ cup sharp cheddar cheese shredded (optional, I skipped)
- 4 slices bacon fried and crumbled
DRESSING:
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt adjust to taste
- ½ teaspoon pepper adjust to taste
Instructions
- Cut raw bacon strips into small cubes, and fry in a pan until crispy and golden brown. Remove it onto a small bowl, and set aside.
- Cut broccoli and cauliflower head into small florets.
- Into a large salad bowl add cut florets of broccoli, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, and sliced red onion.
- To make salad dressing whisk together mayonnaise, sour cream, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper to taste.
- Pour dressing over salad. Toss gently until combined.
- Chill Christmas salad in the refrigerator for 1 hour before serving. Chilling helps salad develop flavors.
- Just before serving sprinkle crispy bacon bits on top and serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe Notes
- No need to cook broccoli and cauliflower florets. Keeping it raw gives the salad a crisp, crunchy texture.
- To have a uniform size of bacon crumbs, cut raw bacon strips into small cubes, and fry them in a pan until crispy and golden brown. Remove it into a small bowl. All crumbs will be uniform.
- Chill salad in the fridge for 1 hour before serving, so the salad has time to absorb and develop flavors.
Created by Jyothi Rajesh
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Jyothi Rajesh is the founder of the food blog, Curry Trail. She lives in Bangalore, India and is the mom of two beautiful kids. Her passion is creating and sharing delicious and easy recipes for the home cook. She’s been blogging since 2007 and many of her recipes have appeared in both online and print publications over the years. Learn more about Jyothi Rajesh.
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