When you want a hearty cold broccoli salad recipe but you don’t want the sugar and carbs to go with it, then you’ll absolutely love this low-carb keto broccoli salad with bacon. Chock full of delicious ingredients like fried bacon, cheese, low carb sunflower seeds, and a keto-friendly sweet dressing, this easy salad recipe will be perfect as a meal prep lunch, on your holiday table, or at low carb broccoli salad potluck with friends.
When I think of holiday dinners and summer potlucks, broccoli salad always seems to be on our family table. Come to think of it, for two decades now I’ve been getting assigned broccoli salad for every occasion, I have this recipe down pat. A traditional broccoli salad recipe calls for lots of sugar, lemon juice, and sometimes sweetened cranberries or raisins. While maybe you thought you couldn’t still have broccoli salad on your health program, you’ll find that this keto broccoli salad tastes just like the yummy traditional version you’re used to. That being said, my husband LOVED this low carb keto broccoli salad with bacon version BETTER than the original! He thought that the apple cider vinegar added a nice kick to the salad that lemon juice doesn’t provide. I’ll be serving this low-carb broccoli salad at my next family party and I don’t even plan to tell them it’s keto and I can guarantee they won’t even notice the difference.
The broccoli salad keto recipe doesn’t taste low carb, which means you can serve it to anyone and I promise it’ll get rave reviews! Raw broccoli holds its shape well and doesn’t get soggy. The keto-friendly broccoli salad will keep for many days in the fridge. It’s easy to make recipe swaps, whether you prefer a different type of nut, cheese, or even protein, customize it or use up what’s in your fridge.
Here’s our traditional broccoli cauliflower salad recipe if you’re looking for a cold broccoli salad and weren’t here for a keto version. Do you love broccoli as much as we do? To make this classic salad as low as carb and keto as possible, we substituted the lemon juice with apple cider vinegar, the sugar with Swerve, and used salted sunflower seeds instead of sugary cranberries or raisins. Feel free to swap half of the broccoli for cauliflower, use ham instead of bacon, use almonds instead of sunflower seeds, or skip the seeds all together. Want a keto broccoli salad without bacon? Feel free to substitute ham, turkey, or your favorite protein substitute. Variations If you want a keto broccoli salad without mayo, you can use sour cream instead but it won’t have as tangy as a flavor.
Mixing in a keto-friendly Ranch dressing also makes a great substitute for times you don’t want to make a homemade dressing. Recipe Instructions To make the broccoli salad keto recipe, you first make a quick, tangy dressing, chop all of the ingredients, add to a bowl, and combine. Make the Dressing To make this delicious keto-friendly broccoli salad, you’ll want to start by making the keto broccoli salad dressing. Mix the mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, and erythritol in a small bowl and set aside. If you have another low carb and keto sweetener you prefer, by all means, use it. Stevia would also work to sweeten this salad but you’ll want to add less of it since it’s 200 times stronger than erythritol. Just a sprinkle of stevia should do it.
Prep The recipe calls for 2 broccoli heads and you’ll want to cut off just the top. I don’t worry if I get little bits of stem pieces in the salad, but most of the broccoli should just be the heads. Using the remaining unused broccoli for broccoli rice is a perfect way to use up the rest of the broccoli. Chop the broccoli into very small pieces and put it into a medium-size bowl. Here’s a visual of how small of pieces we cut the broccoli into.
You could in theory add the broccoli salad dressing before mixing the vegetable mix together and just do this as one step. I personally like to combine the vegetables and other ingredients just to make sure it evenly combines. Combine Add the low carb broccoli salad dressing to the rest of the broccoli, cheese, and bacon mixture and gently combine. Let the mix sit in the fridge for at least one hour before serving so the flavors can blend. This is one of those salad recipes that the longer you let it sit the better it tastes!