Blueberry Mandarin Broccoli Salad

Craving a refreshing and colourful salad? This Blueberry Mandarin Broccoli salad is bursting with flavour, colour and nutrients. With its mouthwatering blueberry balsamic vinaigrette, it makes the perfect healthy and mayo-free summer salad to serve at barbecues and potlucks! {Dairy-free, gluten-free & vegan}

At this time of year, when the weather gets warmer and the sun is shining, I always start to crave more refreshing and colourful salads. Don’t you??

Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good salad any time of year, but I especially enjoy ones that are filled with bursts of juicy fresh fruit, crunchy vegetables and vibrant dressings in the summertime.

Let’s face it.

At all of the summer BBQs and potlucks, there’s usually so many great salads to choose from…ranging from potato salads, to pasta and broccoli salads. But a lot of them tend to be loaded with heavy dressings and add-ons. Not always the healthiest option.

Despite this fact, I always like to try the wide variety of different salads because it inspires me to come up with new healthier versions!

Recently, I’ve been inspired to come up with a broccoli salad recipe.

Broccoli is a vegetable that I love but don’t tend to eat enough of because I find it requires a little sprucing up.

I’ll admit that as a kid I used to hide the cooked broccoli in my napkin and throw it out when my mom wasn’t looking.

The truth is, it can be a little bland on its own and can feel like you’re chomping down on a tree if not served properly.

Despite this fact, broccoli has SO many health benefits. Let’s chat about those for a bit.

Nutritional Benefits of Blueberry Mandarin Broccoli Salad

For starters, broccoli is a good source of folate, calcium, potassium, and iron. These nutrients help support bone health, brain function, oxygen transport and overall heart health.

Broccoli is also great for immunity, boasting plenty of vitamin C, vitamin K and trace minerals such as selenium and zinc.

Furthermore, at 25 calories per cup, broccoli is a low-calorie food and contains 2.6 grams of fiber per cup, so it’s the perfect vegetable to help make you feel full and satisfied.

It really is a nutritional rockstar, so that’s why I’ve been on a mission to include it more regularly in my diet.

So the BIG question here is, how do we make the broccoli taste more appetizing?

Blueberry Mandarin Broccoli Salad…to the rescue!

One thing I realized is that although you don’t commonly think of preparing it this way, broccoli tastes amazing with a combination of fresh juicy fruit, crunchy sliced or slivered almonds, chewy dried cranberries  and a sweeter blueberry-infused dressing. It is SO refreshing and is seriously like a party in your mouth.

This blueberry mandarin broccoli salad meets all of the above criteria and so much more!

After trying it, I quickly realized that I could seriously eat this salad every single day!

How to Serve Blueberry Mandarin Broccoli Salad

It tastes delicious as a side paired with some grilled chicken (marinated in one of these healthy chicken marinades) or fish and makes such a light, healthy and easy meal!

The best type of meals especially on those hot summer days!

And can we just talk about this dressing for a minute?

Look at that colour! Is that not the prettiest dressing EVER?

So. Darn. Good.

Let me just reiterate that fresh blueberries mixed with  balsamic vinegar = winning combination. I actually think this is the best part of the salad. At times, I’ve been tempted to drink this dressing right out of the bottle.

I restrain myself, of course, but it requires some serious effort.

One thing I should mention is that this salad generally has the best presentation when you drizzle on the dressing and mix it immediately before serving. Although it still tastes delicious if it’s been sitting in the dressing for a while, it does start to look a little less appetizing since it’s a dressing with a darker hue.

So for best results, drizzle that dressing on and toss RIGHT before serving.

With the sweet pop of flavour from the blueberries, it also makes a delicious mayo-free dressing alternative.

When it comes to making dressings or sauces, I really like using my magic bullet to blitz the ingredients together in no time at all. Then, once prepared, I simply put the lid on the cup that comes with it and store the dressing in the fridge for later use.

It’s a great strategy when making dressings that require blending in larger batches…. with less cleanup!

And this blueberry balsamic dressing is SO good that I made sure that the dressing recipe below makes a big batch so that you can try it on all of your favourite summer salads!

So definitely don’t go dumping the whole dressing recipe on one serving of the broccoli salad (as tempting as it may be).

Try to pace yourself my friends ;)

More similar recipes

• No-Mayo Broccoli Apple Salad
• Broccoli Salad without Bacon
• Broccoli Cheddar Quinoa Bites
• Blueberry & Avocado Kale Salad
• Blueberry Walnut Salad with Lemon Dressing

Did you make this recipe? Scroll down to leave a rating and review!

Course Salad, Side Dish

Blueberry Mandarin Broccoli Salad

By: Elysia

Servings 6 servings

Craving a refreshing and colourful salad? This Blueberry Mandarin Broccoli salad is bursting with flavour, colour and nutrients. With its mouthwatering blueberry balsamic vinaigrette, it makes the perfect healthy and mayo-free summer salad to serve at barbecues and potlucks! {Dairy-free, gluten-free & vegan}

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 15 minutes mins

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 4 cups of fresh chopped broccoli chop into small bite-sized pieces
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup sliced or slivered almonds
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1 cup mandarin orange slices can use fresh or canned packed in water

For the Blueberry Balsamic Vinaigrette**

• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

• Combine all ingredients for the broccoli salad, except for the mandarin oranges in a large bowl.
• Blend ingredients for dressing in a blender, magic bullet or food processor until smooth.
• Pour desired amount of dressing over salad and toss until evenly distributed. Add the mandarin oranges and give the salad a quick toss to avoid them getting too broken up or mushy. Serve the salad cold or at room temperature.

Notes

** Recipe for Blueberry Balsamic Vinaigrette makes a whole bottle of salad dressing. Use about a quarter of the prepared dressing for the broccoli salad recipe.

Nutrition

Calories: 296kcalCarbohydrates: 27gProtein: 4gFat: 21gSaturated Fat: 3gSodium: 276mgPotassium: 353mgFiber: 4gSugar: 18gVitamin A: 613IUVitamin C: 67mgCalcium: 66mgIron: 1mg

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Recipe Adapted from Peas & Crayons 

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