Warm Broccoli Salad with Bacon and Vinaigrette

TL;DR

I like the taste of broccoli and cauliflower lukewarm at room temperature with a tangy vinaigrette dressing.

If you add a tiny amount of meat to that, such as in this recipe, crispy fried bacon, the salad turns into a flavorful side or stand-alone lunch meal.

In this recipe, I have done just that, but I went all no waste by using the precious bacon drippings in my dressing instead of oil.

Ingredient Notes

• Broccoli — Fresh green florets. You can use the stems but cut off the fibrous parts. I keep my florets in lukewarm water with a dash of vinegar for 5 minutes, so that all impurities and insects, if any, come out. Then I just rinse them off with clear running water.
• Bacon — I prefer to use Streaky Bacon because it's fattier so that I can collect enough drippings for the dressing. You can use Back bacon too.
• Vinegar — Your favorite vinegar. I like white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar or homemade vinegars that are infused with herbs and spices.
• Salt & Black Pepper —
• Bacon Drippings — That you collect from the crispy cooked bacon. If you want to serve this salad cold, use oil instead because bacon drippings turn solid and white when cooled and that doesn't look too good on the salad. But this salad is anyway better served warm.
• Chives — freshly chopped.

Alternatively, you can switch the broccoli with cauliflower too.

Process Overview

Step 1

Prep your broccoli florets and cook them either in salt water or steam.

Step 2

Place bacon on a parchment lined baking sheet and roast in the oven until crispy.

Crumble the warm bacon into smaller pieces and collect the bacon drippings.

Step 3

Prepare the vinaigrette dressing by mixing the vinegar with the salt and black pepper first.

Then add the bacon drippings (or oil if you prefer) and combine all the dressing ingredients.

Step 5

Assemble the salad by placing cooked broccoli with crunchy bacon pieces into a bowl.

Pour the dressing over that and mix it all together. Top with freshly chopped chives.

Tips

The bacon can be cooked crispy in the oven or in a skillet.

You can switch the Bacon drippings with vegetable, sunflower, or canola oil. I prefer the bacon dripping because it is super flavorful, and they turn the dressing so much more exciting.

If you use the bacon drippings, it's a no waste recipe. Bacon drippings turn solid and white when cooled, but as this salad is served warm, the drippings remain liquid. Don't cool the salad if you use the drippings because it won't look that pretty.

Tip: sprinkle some baking soda or baking powder into your boiling broccoli so that the florets retain their green color.

Serving

Serve the salad at room temperature warm. It's best right after preparation, but because you don't need to refrigerate it, you are free to keep it out for a few hours without it getting bad.

Therefore, you can serve this salad as a tailgating, potluck or cookout side dish as it can be left out for a longer time.

Just make sure to consume it completely, if the salad was left out at high temperatures for a longer period of time.

More Salads like this

• Warm Bavarian Potato Salad
• Diced Beet Salad
• Shredded Carrot Salad