OK here's my Roasted Broccoli Salad and it's EVERYTHING! The broccoli's perfect fried roasted mess of shape, crisp, bright lemon & tangy feta — everything's around a big bowl. A true hero of a meal!
Here's the thing I want you to know about this roasted broccoli salad:
It is quite possibly my favorite way that I have ever eaten broccoli in my entire life.
This salad was introduced to me by my friend Liz, who got it from another friend, Amanda, which I like to think is just how the best recipes come about. Now to your screen, here, to be eaten in 5 seconds flat, from one food loving person to another, and onto another.
The ingredients here are humble and low-key, but together they make a FLAVOR BANG:
- shallot
- bacon
- feta
- lemon
- broccoli
- sourdough
Now toss in some olive oil, salt, pepper and you are on the beautiful roasted broccoli ride.
It Has Everything You Want In a Salad
The flavors in this are just everything I want in all my meals ever: Roasted broccoli, tangy, crunchy, slightly bitter and bright from the lemon zest, salty from the crisped up bacon, built around a big bowl of roasted broccoli (in and of itself, is a real hero).
Reasons I love this as an SOS meal:
- It's incredibly delicious. Good food, good mood. Instant lift.
- This is actually so minimal hands on prep. It pretty much all happens on a pan, marinating you all the time for… not being in the kitchen.
- This is super customizable. To take an example, perhaps you'd like to really bulk it up; you could add something like some rotisserie chicken or even some more roasted veggies.
- And it actually does keep really well as leftovers. Obviously, just keep those croutons nice and dry in a separate container, and the bread is the one tricky thing that can get soggy. But I promise you that this salad can be eaten garlic and all, hot, cold, room temp – I know you're going to ask, but I've even eaten these leftovers for breakfast. On that SOS train to the very last stop.
I don't mean that you should be jealous, but at this very moment there is a sheet pan of broccoli, bacon, and shallots in my oven.
My house smells amazing, I already am eating this and IT IS A GLORIOUS DAY.
ROASTED BROCCOLI SALAD: FAQS
I'm all out of bacon! What can I sub?
Pancetta would be delicious! Dice it up into tiny cubes – or lots of grocery stores sell pancetta pre-cubed (SOS win!). Fry it up in a pan for a few minutes, and then throw it on the salad.
When do leftovers still taste delicious?
If you can store the broccoli and other ingredients separately from the sourdough croutons, this will keep for 3 – 5 days in a covered container in the fridge. If they go in with the dressing, other ingredients along with the croutons they might breakdown quicker and get soggy the next day. I think I've eaten it as slightly soggy leftovers and it's still really good. 🙂
This looks great! Is this a full meal?
So this salad is extremely filling! Not that this isn't already full of bread, bacon and cheese but if you want something else with it, these chicken meatballs or store bought rotisserie chicken would be good.
Can I use frozen broccoli?
Absolutely! What you should keep in mind is that the oven cooking on the frozen broccoli option takes more time. You can either remove the shallots from the pan after 20-30 minutes or begin the broccoli first, adding the shallots to the pan 10-15 minutes later so that your other ingredients don't overcook.
