Sweet and Sour Broccoli Salad
Sweet and Sour Broccoli Salad is my version of a classic broccoli that salad everyone loves, and it’s perfect for any occasion! You can vary the ingredients in this tasty salad with broccoli, bacon, pecans, and cheese to fit the preferences of your family.
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Sweet and Sour Broccoli Salad is perfect to feature for Friday Favorites! I love this salad for any kind of party or holiday, or just for a treat for the family. I wonder sometimes why certain recipes become classics that people make over and over. But this type of broccoli salad is definitely one of those recipes everyone loves.
I’ve been making my lower-carb version of Sweet and Sour Broccoli Salad (and improving the recipe) for many, many years now! Through the years I experimented with different sweeteners, used more or less bacon, switched raisins for pecans, and even tried a version where the broccoli was finely chopped. (That was actually really good, if you prefer that variation.)
I think this latest version of Broccoli Salad is the best one I’ve made, and I love the ingredients you see here for this ever-popular salad. But feel free to experiment with other variations; no matter how you change this up, I don’t think there can ever be a bad version of this salad!
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What ingredients do you need for this recipe?
(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- broccoli
- red onion
- bacon
- chopped pecans
- grated cheddar cheese
- mayo
- Unseasoned Rice Vinegar (affiliate link)
- Golden Monkfruit Sweetener (affiliate link) or other sweetener of your choice
- Spike Seasoning (affiliate link) or other all-purpose seasoning blend
- salt/pepper to taste
What does sweet and sour mean in the recipe title?
This broccoli salad has a mayo-based dressing that has vinegar and your favorite sweetener for a delightful sweet-and-sour flavor that goes perfectly with the broccoli!
What else can you add to this broccoli salad?
This is such a classic salad recipe that I’m sure plenty of people are making it who don’t care about the carbs. If that’s the case for you, this is also delicious with raisins. Or use Craisins if you’re making it for a holiday salad!
What makes the Sweet and Sour Broccoli Salad low in carbs?
I switched out the raisins often found in this salad for pecans. I make the yummy mayo-based dressing with Golden Monkfruit Sweetener (affiliate link) and I don’t miss the sugar I used to use. The Monkfruit gives great flavor and makes a dressing that’s really low in carbs!
How low in carbs is my version of this famous broccoli salad?
My version of everyone’s favorite salad with broccoli has only 8.7 net carbs per serving with 12 grams of protein.
How to make Sweet and Sour Broccoli Salad:
(This is only a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- That’s my favorite 8-Cup glass measuring cup (affiliate link) full of cut up broccoli.
- If your broccoli is even the tiniest bit limp crisp it in ice water in the salad spinner and spin dry.
- I use the pre-cooked bacon from Costco; just crisp bacon in the microwave, and blot off a little fat if you prefer.
- Then coarsely chop the broccoli.
- Chop up red onion and pecans and measure out the cheese.
- Combine mayo, vinegar, Golden Monkfruit Sweetener (affiliate link) or sweetener of your choice, Spike Seasoning (affiliate link), salt, and pepper to make the flavorful dressing.
- Put broccoli in a bowl and toss with enough dressing to coat.
- Then gently stir in the onion, bacon, pecans, and cheese.
- Sweet and Sour Broccoli Salad can be chilled or served right away.
- This salad will keep in the fridge for several days, but you might want to stir in a little more dressing to refresh the flavors.
Make it for a Low-Carb Meal:
Sweet and Sour Broccoli Salad is perfect to make for a pot-luck, but if you want to make it for a low-carb meals, here are some main dishes that would taste good with this salad:
- Sanpete County Grilled Turkey Kabobs
- Chicken Cutlets with Mustard Sauce
- Pork with Peanut Sauce
- Baked Teriyaki Chicken
- Apricot Glazed Pork Chops
Weekend Food Prep:
Sweet and Sour Broccoli Salad has been added to a new category called Weekend Food Prep where you’ll find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week!
Sweet and Sour Broccoli Salad
This favorite Sweet and Sour Broccoli is a recipe I've been making (and improving) for years! And I think this broccoli salad is perfect to make for party any time of year.
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 8 cups fresh broccoli, cut into small flowerets and stems chopped into small pieces
- 1/2 small red onion, cut into slices and then 1/4 inch dice (see notes)
- 8 slices bacon, cooked very crisp, fat blotted off, and then crumbled
- 3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans
- 1 cup grated cheddar cheese (see notes)
Dressing Ingredients:
- 1 cup mayo
- 3 T unseasoned rice vinegar (see notes)
- 1/4 C Golden Monkfruit Sweetener (see notes)
- 2 tsp. Spike Seasoning (see notes)
- salt/pepper to taste
Instructions
- Chop broccoli flowerets and stems into small pieces; then wash in salad spinner and spin dry. (If the broccoli is even the tiniest bit limp, let broccoli sit in the salad spinner with cold water and ice for about 5 minutes to crisp it before you spin it dry.)
- Cook the bacon until it’s very crisp, then blot on both sides with paper towels to remove as much fat as possible. (I use Costco pre-cooked bacon and then crisp it in the microwave.) Crumble the bacon.
- Chop onion into small pieces and coarsely chop pecans.
- Combine dressing ingredients in a bowl or glass measuring cup, mixing with a wire whisk.
- Put the chopped broccoli in a large salad bowl. Â Add desired amount of dressing and stir to coat the broccoli. (You may not want all the dressing depending on how wet you prefer your salad. Extra dressing is great on cabbage, or save it to refresh the flavor in the salad if you have leftovers.)
- Gently fold in chopped onion, bacon, pecans, and cheese. Salad can be refrigerated for a few hours before serving.
- This broccoli salad will keep in the refrigerator for several days, but you may want to add a tablespoon or two of extra dressing after it’s been refrigerated.
Notes
You can use thinly sliced green onion for the salad if you’re not a raw onion fan.
I used Four Cheese Blend from Costco; I think this would be quite good without cheese too.
I prefer mild rice vinegar for this, but you can use white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar too if that's what you have.
I used to make this with a combination of sweetener and brown sugar, but now I use Golden Monkfruit Sweetener for this salad. Use any zero-carb sweetener you prefer.
If you don't have Spike Seasoning (affiliate link) use any all-purpose seasoning that you like.
This recipe adapted from many sources, with changes by Kalyn through the years!
Nutrition Information
Yield
8Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 427Total Fat 37gSaturated Fat 8gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 28gCholesterol 37mgSodium 977mgCarbohydrates 15gFiber 6.3gSugar 3.6gProtein 12g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
My Sweet and Sour Broccoli Salad has mostly broccoli, which is a relatively low-carb ingredient. I use Golden Monkfruit sweetener, which is a zero carb sweetener. If you’re making this for the original South Beach Diet they would prefer turkey bacon and low-fat mayo and cheese; other low-carb diets would prefer full-fat ingredients.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Salad Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Recipes by Diet Type index to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This long-time favorite salad with broccoli was first posted in 2007! It was last updated with more information in 2026.
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45 Comments on “Sweet and Sour Broccoli Salad”
I made this for our Mother’s Day meal. It was delicious . I have a favorite I’ve always made , but decided to followed this exactly EXCEPT… I blanched the broccoli for 3 minutes . I personally think that step is a game changer !! I have been doing that for the last couple of years after I saw it suggested . Everyone always ask what I did different . Thank you Kayln for all your work . We enjoy many of your recipes .Â
Thanks Jill, so glad you are enjoying the recipes!
I love this recipe. Not only does it taste good, but when I first saw it some time ago, I was so happy to see you measured out the broccoli. So many recipes like this say some number of broccoli heads and some are small, some large. Thanks for always being so thorough.
Thank you for noticing that. I do try! So glad you have enjoyed it so much.
I made exactly as written. Wow. Delish.
So glad you enjoyed; I love this salad!
I made this a few days ago. It is soo good. I love the sweet and sour taste. I will be making this again. I wish I made more
So glad you enjoyed it! This is one of my personal favorites for sure. Never get tired of it.
I love broccoli salads. I always blanch/shock the broccoli for about 3-4 seconds, just enough to set the bright green color and eliminate that raw taste. I sub dried cranberries when raisins are called for, almonds when the dressing has sesame oil, and toasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas) instead of sunflower seeds in others.
Yes, that's a good idea if you like the broccoli not completely raw.
I had been eating a broccoli salad from a local deli. It was good but loaded with raisins which I did not care for. I was happy to see your recipe and tried it the other day. I used swerve for the sweetener and a little Splenda brown sugar. It came out delicious! Love that dressing. I love looking through your recipes and always look forward to seeing something new. Thanks!
Thanks! So glad you are enjoying the recipes!
That's an interesting idea, but in this case where there is quite a bit of vinegar in the dressing I doubt it would work without some kind of sweetener to balance it out. I do agree completely though that lots of recipes seem to have sugar that's not needed and I often do just leave it out.
Read some research recently that steaming broccoli 3-4 minutes makes
some of its healthy ingredients more accessible to the body. Will
try that with the salad.
Brenda, let us know how you like it that way! I hadn't heard about that.
The only trick I know for chopping broccoli is to cut flowerets from the stems (I save the stems), and then cut partway through the stem part and pull it apart through the head so you're not actually chopping through the broccoli flower part. That keeps it so it doesn't make a big mess. I just chop with a big knife, doing that over and over until it's all chopped.
Could you share instructions or video on how you chopped your broccoli? I can never get past the florets. Recipe sounds yummy…will try soon! Thx.
I'm skeptical about using all Greek yogurt, but I think a mix of Greek yogurt and mayo might be good.
Hi Kalyn. I've always loved this salad! What do you think it would taste like if you subbed out the mayo and used fat free Greek yogurt in it's place? I might give that a try just to see. It would lighten the recipe even more.
I stumbled across your blog yesterday from a pin on pinterest and I'm loving it! I've been searching for hot weather friendly side dishes and salads and you have so many! Made this today and love it! My husband loves this type of broccoli salad. This has the perfect amount of dressing. I usually don't like broccoli salad because it's drowning in a heavy dressing. Not this one! It's perfect!
Sarah, thanks and so glad you are enjoying the blog!
It really is Kalyn…..and the pine nuts really make it stand out IMHO. 🙂
Barb, I love the idea of using pine nuts! Isn't it interesting how different the salad is with the broccoli cut smaller?
I've been making this salad for years, but started cutting the broc in smaller pieces after having it in a restaurant in San Diego called Lots of Pasta…..it's their house signature salad. I also copied their idea of using toasted pine nuts in it. I had a Japanese student live w/me for a year and she LOVED this salad….we now call it Rina's Salad after her. 🙂
This is a wonderful salad. I have been making it for years. I agree that cutting up the broccoli into small pieces seems to make it taste better because the dressing can coat it much better…but your earlier picture with the larger pieces of broccoli looks so much prettier. I like to add craisins to mine.
Lydia, fun indeed. And I'm guessing you would like this version, even without the bacon!
I'm not crazy about raw broccoli, so I think I'd love this version 2.0 salad with the broccoli cut much smaller. Isn't it fun to take an old favorite recipe and make it even better?
Sarah, so glad you liked it. It's funny you just commented, because over the weekend I had a version of this salad where the broccoli was finely chopped (stems and all) and I loved it!
It seems like all I want to eat lately is broccoli salad–I make one version or another once a day. This one is my new favorite. I only made one change and that was using half reduced fat mayonnaise/half reduced fat sour cream. I didn't get a chance to dig into it until just now……..and BOY, is it GOOD! Slightly sweet because of the agave nectar with the perfect amount of dressing, bacon and cheese combined with the broccoli. AMAZING!
I LOVE THIS SALAD!!! Seriously, I make a big batch and take it for lunch at work for the week or as a side with my dinner. I use fat free smoked turkey breast & fat free smoked ham instead of bacon and toasted pine nuts. DELICIOUS! I love this blog too. I just started south beach and I can feel the changes already.
Cupcake
Hey Kalyn – I bought some agave nectar for the first time recently and am really enjoying it! I thought it would be hard to find or expensive or hard to use, but it’s not. (Whole Foods, less than $8) It’s similar to a thin honey but has a slightly different taste. I’ve noticed a lot of vegan blogs and cookbooks call for agave nectar instead of sugar (which is sometimes filtered through an animal-based charcoal) and honey (bees=animals.) Vegan concerns aside, it’s nice to have a natural sweetner (I REALLY dislike the taste of artificial sweetners) that tastes yummy and has a low glycemic index. I’ve been making sweet iced tea with it all summer!
This is a new product for me but it sounds really great! I’ll have to pick some up next time. Thanks for the heads up Kalyn!
Sounds interesting. I use agave nectar in baking. Haven’t yet tried it in an uncooked or savoury recipe though. I’ll have to give this one a try.
Joe, thanks for letting me know about the calories in Splenda. I think I’m always looking at the amount in a tablespoon, which is pretty small!
Butcher Block, thanks for visiting. Hope you like the recipe.
Great big vegetable challenge, I think it’s getting to be pretty widely available.
Kalyn
I have never tried out agave nectar but will now be looking for it.
Great suggestion…
Always looking for new ways to use broccoli! Great recipe. Also a quick note about Splenda – it isn’t exactly calorie free (close enough though…) as there are 96 calories per cup.
I will have to try out this recipe, it looks good!
Kalyn why the sub of pecans for sunflower seeds? I tend to like sunflower seeds more than pecans. The salad seems wonderful. Haven’t ever heard of the agave nectar.
Raji, I really liked it. I think it’s pretty versatile.
Katie, me too on the lack of baking. This could be used anywhere you might use sugar, so it’s great for people like me who don’t want any sugar at all.
Deb, I’ll check it out since I’m definitely going to be experimenting with substituting it for sugar in lots of things.
Christine, it’s a liquid slightly thinner than honey and with some of the same coating properties. Really delicious tasting.
Tanna, the sunflower seeds get soggy when this is kept in the fridge, so I was just experimenting. (Also I was out of sunflower seeds!) Sunflower seeds are the usual thing used in the salad, so use them if you like them better.
Dani, thanks. My brother Rand does the headers, and he’s incredibly multi-talented!
Kelly, I bet it’s in every store there! I can tell this will be a routine pantry item for me from now on.
Sher, I bet you’d like it. As I said, the flavor is great!
Well, that’s a fabulous recipe. It looks so pretty and has so many of the things I love to eat in it. And I will look for the Agave Nectar.
We have agave all over the place out here in Tucson and I’m always looking for ways to incorporate local ingredients. Thanks for the tip!
just wanted to mention that I love the new picture on your banner…so fun!!
This recipe sounds just excellent, no matter how you sweeten it. I have never heard of agave nectar and I’m intrigued. I assume from its name iti s a liquid?
I’ve never heard of it! It does sound like it would be good!
I use so little sugar that I really never think about!
I only bake at Christmas and rarely have anythng but fruit for a sweet.
Thanks for blogging about Agave Nectar. I am going to pick some up when I go to Henry’s next time. I am constantly trying to find ways to cut back on sugar in the family and use honey as a substitute in some recipes. I am looking forward to try out Agave Nectar to see how it can be used.