This broccoli salad recipe is a meal with the added white beans and rice. It has a fair number of ingredients, but very little prepping. This, along with the fact it's served at room temperature or chilled, makes it a great salad for summer dinner.
Make this salad ahead of time, chill, and serve in minutes at the end of a hot day. Just serve with some steamed corn and sliced tomatoes for a little variety on the plate.
Jump to:
A shiny new farmer's market just opened up here in our town in Lake Tahoe. It's small - with maybe 15 tents with a very personal touch. One elderly farmer glanced dismissively at the plastic bag of baby kale I handed to him to be weighed, snorted that it wasn’t enough to weigh, and charged me $1.00.
There's some live music while you browse the tables laden with just-picked peaches, tomatoes, corn and berries.
I went with a friend to check it out last week, and was glad we went early. Word had gotten out. Cars were parked all along the road, families strolled in knots towards the tents with their shopping bags, and kids raced ahead to check out the music.
Fresh Cranberry Beans
As we poked around the bustling crowd, I spied some fresh cranberry pods and grabbed a few handfuls, quickly stuffing them into a plastic bag.
I cook a lot of dried legumes, and the opportunity to get them freshly harvested was a treat. I’m not partial to one bean over another, I love them all, but cranberry beans just might win the beauty contest.
Cranberry beans, also known as Roman beans or speckled sugar beans, are smooth, pinkish, oval-shaped beans with gorgeous dark-red speckles. They're medium size, plump, and cook up slightly creamy in texture, with a sweet, chestnut-like flavor.
Those beans inspired this recipe, although you can use any white bean instead.
Ingredients for Broccoli Salad
- Fresh cranberry beans - you'll see these sometimes in the summer in the produce section of the market. If you don't have them, use any white bean.
- Celery
- Red onion
- Dried cherries or dried cranberries
- Cooked brown rice - or white rice, if that's your preference.
- Red seedless grapes
- Parsley - I prefer Italian or flat leaf parsley, but curly parsley works fine.
- Broccoli florets and stems - the only stems used are the parts close to the florets. The stalk can be too fibrous for this salad.
- Parmesan or Asiago cheese
- Crushed red pepper flakes
- Roasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas) - purchased already roasted, or roast your own. If you don't have any, you can use roasted, salted peanuts instead.
Ingredients for Broccoli Salad Dressing
- Yogurt - I use full-fat, unflavored.
- Lemon juice
- Garlic
- Parsley
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links to products and foods I use in my kitchen. This means that at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. To view my entire storefront of recommended kitchen tools and equipment, check out my shop on Amazon.
Instructions
Step 1 (5 minutes)
Make the broccoli dressing. Stir together all of the ingredients for the Lemon-Garlic-Yogurt Dressing. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour.
Step 2 (30 minutes - if using canned beans)
Cook the fresh cranberry beans and rice. If you're lucky enough to have fresh cranberry beans, start to cook them. If you choose to use white beans, either cook them from dried or open a can.
Drain the beans and rinse.
Cook the rice according the package directions. Use these tips for perfect rice!
Step 3 (10 minutes)
Prep the broccoli. Thinly slice the broccoli. This salad uses raw broccoli, and is easiest to eat when the broccoli pieces are small. Broccoli is a very fibrous vegetable.
Step 4 (5 minutes)
Add everything else. Combine the remaining ingredients with the broccoli and beans in a large bowl.
Toss with the dressing. Chill for 1 hour, or ideally overnight for the very best flavor.
Step 5
Serve. Serve with a spray of roasted pumpkin seeds.
For the Meat Eaters at the Table
Serve with roasted chicken, beef dishes or pork. Grilled flank steak in particular goes well with this salad. You can also add some bacon to the salad for the meat eaters at the table.
Other Sides to Serve with this Salad
Serve with corn on the cob, slathered in butter with salt and pepper. And some slices ripe beefsteak tomatoes.
Keep it simple as the broccoli salad is the true star of the meal.
Want more vegetarian and vegan dish ideas? I can help you. I have three newsletters for different topics: 1) Vegetarian Recipes, 2) Vegetarian Meal Plans, and 3) Vegetarian Tips for helping you to move to a more vegetarian diet. Choose which newsletters are most relevant to your lifestyle and you'll also get my 5 SECRETS TO FUSS-FREE VEGETARIAN DINNERS.
Broccoli Salad with White Beans
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
Ingredients
Lemon - Garlic - Yogurt Dressing
- 1 cup whole fat plain yogurt
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 2 large garlic cloves
- ⅓ cup chopped parsley
- Salt and pepper to taste
Broccoli and Cranberry Bean Salad
- 1 ½ cups fresh cranberry beans or 1 can white beans
- 1 cup thinly sliced celery
- ¼ cup diced red onion
- ⅓ cup dried cherries or dried cranberries
- 1 cup cooked brown rice or white rice
- ¾ cup halved grapes
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- 4 cups thinly sliced broccoli florets and stems
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan or asiago cheese
- Pinch or two of red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup pepitas (roasted pumpkin seeds)
- 1 cup Yogurt - Garlic Dressing (recipe above)
Instructions
Lemon - Garlic - Yogurt Dressing
- Combine all of the ingredients together in a small bowl, and refrigerate for at least one hour.
Broccoli and Cranberry Bean Salad
- Bring a pot of water to a simmer and add the cranberry beans. Simmer until tender: about 20 minutes at sea level; about 50 minutes at 7000 feet. Drain and place the beans in a medium bowl.
- Cook the rice. Place in the bowl with the beans.
- Add the celery, red onion, dried cherries, cooked rice, grapes, parsley, broccoli, cheese, and red pepper flakes.
- Add the Yogurt - Garlic Dressing and refrigerate for at least one hour. Overnight is even better for the best flavor. This is a salad that only gets better over time.
- Serve with a sprinkle of pepitas on top.
Cookin Canuck
That sounds like a wonderful market! And fresh beans are hard to come by...it looks as though you made good use of them with this pretty salad.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much! It's such a sweet market. I went again yesterday and got an impromptu tutorial from another farmer on which peaches to purchase for various uses. It was great!
Rita
Love it! So good-for-you too. I never would had considered a yogurt dressing for a salad of this type. Very creative.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
The lemony-garlicky-yogurt and the broccoli are really good together - and it just gets better over time.
apuginthekitchen
Going to the farmers market is so much fun, your little market sounds so nice and my guess is it will quickly expanc and attract more farmers. The salad sounds so good, I love cranberry beans and the creamy yogurt dressing sounds perfect.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I love the small personal nature of this little farmer's market. When I went the second time, the selection was a little different, which made me feel like we were seeing what was best that week in the fields.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Oh, I should add, Suzanne, that Myles kept asking if there was any left - long after it was gone. So it was a hit even with him!
laurasmess
I've never heard of a cranberry bean. They look similar to what we call 'borlotti beans' over here... do you have that variety where you are? I equally adore farmer's markets. It definitely feels like such a treat to have a bean fresh out of the pod rather than canned or dried. I love the look of your salad. The gorgeous soft, creamy beans, the crunch of the seeds (those pepitas look divine!), vegetables and rice, the tangy dressing and sweet dried cherries. Ah, this is pretty much my perfect meal (I can easily eat a big bowl of salad for a meal, any day of the week!). Thanks for this Susan. Yum!!! xx
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I can get borlotti beans dried, but I've yet to see them fresh. Can you get them fresh where you are? And thanks sooo much for your kind comment about this salad. I had it 3 days in a row, and my husband is still asking when I'm making it again :-). And he's a tough sell on healthy dishes...
lizthechef
I adore small farmers market - the smallest one I visit here is in Coronado on Tuesday afternoons. It is all produce, nuts, flowers - no prepared foods. Your salad is lovely - I have never seen fresh cranberry beans.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I don't see them very often, Liz. That's why when I saw them, I grabbed them. When I went back to the same farmer's market this week, they didn't have any. But they had some great wax beans, so it was a nice consolation prize 🙂
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much Marie!!
Norma Chang
Wonderful that you found fresh cranberry bean pods. Healthy and delicious salad, book marking.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks Norma! I'm making it again for a pot luck I'm going to 🙂
Shikha
This looks STELLAR. I'm struggling to find good salad recipes that aren't just mounds of lettuce and will keep me full and I think I found it! I don't know where I can find cranberry beans, though 😛
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much Shkha!! When I don't see them fresh at the market (which means usually), I buy dried ones at my market. But really any white bean will work great in this salad: cannellini, navy white beans, all good here.
Yvonne @ bitter baker
I really have to start making more yoghurt dressings - every time I see a recipe for one, I'm reminded of how much I like them! And I do have parsley in my garden, so I really have no excuse now 🙂
And this bean salad looks delicious, I never knew that cranberry beans even existed!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks Yvonne! I make an extra batch of this dressing now and add it to all kinds of things. I made a broccoli and brown rice casserole a couple of nights ago and added it and it was really wonderful. Usually I just see the cranberry beans in the dried form, but every once in awhile, I get lucky and see them at the market. If you can't find them, any white bean will do great in this salad 🙂
Food to Fitness
Looks just delicious. Thanks for the recipe.