I remember absolutely despising broccoli salad when I was growing up; every time it appeared on a party table or at a potluck it involved a lot of weird textures and a mayo-drenched salad. Yet ever since I created my tahini curry broccoli salad there’s nothing I love more than REALLY, REALLY GOOD crunchy salad that doesn’t involve lettuce.
Today I’m back to reinvent the classic broccoli salad and get the party table a little bit healthier with my fall-inspired apple broccoli salad: it’s packed with chickpeas, crunchy sweet Honeycrisp apples (or whatever apples you’d like), dried cherries, pecans for some crunch and fresh herbs.
The honey dijon dressing involved brings it all together and damnnnnnn it is GOOD. No, there’s no mayonnaise or even greek yogurt involved.
The best part of this salad is that it’s no cook and only takes about 20 minutes to whip up. Chop all your veggies and throw everything in a big bowl, toss with the dressing and you’re good to go!
Everything you’ll need to make this healthy broccoli apple salad
This beautiful dairy free broccoli apple salad recipe is loaded with crunchy veggies for plenty of fiber, protein from chickpeas, and a sweet & tangy honey dijon dressing. Here’s everything you’ll need to make it:
- Produce: we’re packing this salad with broccoli, carrots, green onion, and juicy Honeycrisp apples.
- Chickpeas: this apple broccoli salad gets plenty of protein from chickpeas!
- Mix-ins: you’ll also mix in sweet dried cherries, crunchy pecans, and fresh parsley.
- For the dressing: give this salad delicious flavor with a tangy dressing made from olive oil, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard, honey, garlic, salt, and pepper. You could also use lemon juice in place of the apple cider vinegar if you’d like.
Do I need to cook the broccoli?
Nope! This salad uses fresh, raw broccoli, which I think is perfect as is. If you’re sensitive to raw veggies like broccoli you can feel free to give it a quick blanch to make it a little bit easier to digest.
Customize your apple broccoli salad
Looking to mix it up a bit? Here’s what I can recommend in terms of ingredient swaps:
- Go vegan. Simply swap the honey in the dressing for maple syrup.
- Choose your protein. If you’re not eating plant-based, you could swap the chickpeas for cooked, cubed honey mustard chicken, shrimp, or even salmon.
- Swap the produce. Feel free to use what you have on hand! I think bell pepper, red onion, and/or shredded cabbage would be great additions, and you could even swap the broccoli for shredded brussels sprouts. Fuji, gala apples, braeburn, or tart granny smith apples would also be great — it’s just up to your taste preference!
- Try a new dressing. This sesame ginger dressing and this Thai-inspired peanut dressing would also be delicious.
- Have fun with mix-ins. I love the crunch of pecans, but cashews, sliced almonds, walnuts, or even sunflower seeds make a great swap. Feel free to omit nuts if need be! You could also add chopped dates, dried cranberries, or raisins in place of the dried cherries.
Don’t forget these broccoli salad tips
- Chop your broccoli very finely. The trick to this salad is to make sure your fresh broccoli florets are VERY finely chopped so that you get delicious bites with a little bit of everything.
- Meal prep or feed a crowd. This salad is perfect to make during the week because it keeps well in the fridge, but it’s also great for parties & gatherings! Feel free to double it for a crowd to make a yummy side dish that everyone will love. I suggest leaving out the pecans until you are ready to serve.
- Make it ahead of time. If you’re looking to save some time, I’d recommend chopping up all of your veggies 1-2 days ahead of serving or eating the salad so that you can easily throw it together! You could also make the dressing 1-2 days ahead of time as well and store it separately in the fridge.
Add a little heartiness
If you’re looking for a heartier meal, feel free to add this crunchy salad to your favorite tortilla to make a wrap!
Storing tips
Store this healthy apple broccoli salad in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. The apple cider vinegar prevents the apples from browning! I recommend adding the pecans to your individual portion before serving.
More salad recipes you’ll love
- Sesame Chicken Cabbage Crunch Salad
- Vegan Curried Broccoli Chickpea Salad
- The Easiest Chopped Greek Chickpea Salad
- Italian Chopped Brussels Sprouts Salad
- Brussels Sprouts Kale Honeycrisp Apple Salad with Maple Cider Dressing
Get all of my salad recipes here!
I hope you love this vegetarian apple broccoli salad recipe. If you make it be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know you liked it!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Chickpea Apple Broccoli Salad with Honey Dijon Dressing
Ingredients
- For the salad:
- 1 head broccoli (5-6 cups), very finely chopped
- 1 (15 ounce) can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 2 cups diced honeycrisp apples (from about 2 medium honeycrisp apples)
- 1 cup shredded carrots (or 1 cup matchstick cut carrots)
- ⅓ cup diced green onion
- ⅓ cup dried cherries
- ⅓ cup chopped pecans
- ½ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
- For the dressing:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 ½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- ½ tablespoon honey
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- Freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste
- To garnish:
- Extra cherries and pecans
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add finely chopped broccoli, chickpeas, apples, carrots, green onion, dried cherries, pecans, and parsley. Set aside.
- Make the dressing by whisking together the following ingredients in a small bowl: olive oil, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard, honey, garlic, salt and pepper. Immediately drizzle over salad and toss to combine.
- Taste and add more salt and pepper, if necessary. Garnish with extra cherries and pecans and serve immediately or place in the fridge for later. Salad will keep well up to 5 days. Serves 4.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published on September 27th, 2018, and republished on August 30th, 2023.
My family and I love this salad!! It will definitely be a repeater! I love how color it is, the variety of textures. I substituted the dried cranberries for pomegranate seeds. The dressing was perfect as well!
So happy to hear that! This one’s great for customizing 🙂
This is a really tasty salad! I made it yesterday (Sunday) and will use it for lunches this week. I had it as a side to chicken today but I’m excited to put this in a wrap tomorrow!
My only suggestion would be to consider specifying the broccoli in a cup measurement. Broccoli heads vary pretty greatly in size and I think mine was probably a little too big for this recipe. If I were to make it again using the same size broccoli, I’d probably do 1.5 to 2 times the dressing recipe.
Wonderful flavors and textures, though!
So glad you enjoyed! I love adding a chopped salad to a wrap 🙂 I’ve just updated the recipe – it should be about 5-6 cups broccoli!
This salad is really good and very satisfying. Great for a lunch or snack.
Rushed home to make this since I knew o had all the ingredients and it’s SO. GOOD.
I added coleslaw mix, mini sweet bell peppers, cilantro instead of parsley, and pomegranate seeds- all just cuz I had them 🙂
Made the dressing as is and spread it all over, and it’s absolutely delicious! Thanks for and Absolutely delicious recipe!!
Thank you so much for the amazing meal planning & delicious recipe.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Easy and delicious .. and excellent a day or two old! I’ve only just discovered you can buy ‘fresh carrot shred’ in the supermarket (which is more like teeny carrot sticks rather than grated carrot) which is a game changer for this 😀
Absolutely! So easy and such a great lunch 🙂
Delicious and nutrient dense! Loved switching it up from a boring standard salad. Served originally with ham and cheese sandwiches, then had leftovers by itself and with grilled chicken. I will definitely be making again! Thank you!
Perfect for fall! Great idea to serve it as a side or a main 🙂
This was excellent! The dressing really pops against all these textures. Loved it.
So good! Glad you enjoyed!
Thank you. This was a perfect recipe as apples are so fresh & delicious right now. Instead of dried cherries and pecans I used dried cranberries and walnuts. I used a very grainy old fashioned mustard. The dressing and salad were delicious!
Perfect! Such a great lunch this time of year 🙂
The recipe says 1 head of broccoli. Broccoli heads can be all sizes, even up to 12″across. About how many inches across are you using in this recipe. Thanks.
Hi! I would guess around 6″. It should yield about 4-5 cups of broccoli.
These recipes are amazing! Thank you!
Absolutely! Glad you’re loving them 🙂
Absolutely delicious and very easy to make. I did double the dressing because the first amount didn’t seem to be enough. Thank you for this keeper ❤️
I’m glad the extra dressing helped! Such a great lunch 🙂
Someone brought this salad to my house for a gathering and it was delicious! I asked for the recipe and plan to buy the ingredients the next time I’m at the store. She did replace the cherries with cranberries, but otherwise it was done exactly as written. Delicious!
Amazing! Glad it was a hit!
Excellent I could eat the whole thing by myself!
Delicious healthy salad. I will make this again. I left the nuts out.
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed.
Healthy and delicious food without the effort and fuss in these over busy times.
So far, I’m looking for nutritious meals, and I love what they have to offer. Looking forward to uncovering a lot more on this site.
This is my favourite broccoli salad. It is so fresh! And it tastes even better as leftovers!
Absolutely! Great for meal prep 🙂
It looks so yummy. All those textures will be wonderful. Can I use Macintosh apples? Also, I’m assuming the apples will NOT go brown since there is vinegar in the recipe. Can’t wait to try it today.
Yes, Macintosh are great in here! And I don’t think they’ll brown after being tossed with the dressing. Enjoy!
What a yummy salad. So so easy to chop and throw together. A winner!
I love this recipe. Made it once and now I go to make it again and the video just keeps playing in the middle of tbe recipe and I can’t get it to go away. 🙃 frustration on its highest
Hmm what video?
Delicious! Added more honey to the dressing, and more dressing to the salad.
YUM! Sounds delish, glad it was a hit
Very good salad
I was so excited to find your site & the possibility of tasty easy recipes & this salad in particular. How disappointing to find your recipe contained a whopping 19!!g of sugar! I don’t see how you can advertise this as a healthy recipe.
I imagine it is a conundrum because the majority of readers are not really interested in recipes that are truly healthy. But there is a market for recipes that foster health of body & mind, vs this recipe for brain inflammation. Hope you will consider this shift – it is a market niche in need of filling.Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts w/ you.
Hi, Mary Jo. Ambitious Kitchen is all about balance, and I’m personally fine with the amount of sugar in here! Much of it comes from apples (natural sugars) and there’s just a tiny bit of honey in the dressing which you can definitely leave out if you’d like.
Great healthy lunch option! I love all of the different flavors and textures. Next time I may sub out half of the broccoli for Brusell sprouts!
Oh love this! Glad this recipe is a hit for you, Stephanie. Lmk how it turns out with the Brussels sprouts!
Very flavorful. Love that you can make it and eat it over a couple days
Amazing! Glad you’re loving this recipe, Steph 🙂
This salad is ridiculously good. I added bbq chicken breast for some extra protein and I ate half of it just shovelling in spoonfuls as I waited for the chicken to cook. Definitely will be making this again and again! Yet another killer recipe from Ambitious Kitchen ❤️
Aww this means so much to me! I am so glad you’re loving this salad and it turned out amazing for you, Leslie ❤️
You have very nice recipes, I like them very much.
This is delicious! I was a little unsure about the dressing with the raw garlic being too strong but it’s not. I also subbed dried cranberries for cherries since it was easier for me to find. Such a great meal prep lunch option and so healthy!
WOO! This is the best, Tricia. So glad you’re loving this recipe and it turned out great for you!
Literally made this again this week (2 weeks in a row) – it’s THAT good. Thanks again, love your blog!
So.delicious. We had extra broccoli so we doubled the dressing and tossed extra cherries. My spouse isn’t a pecan fan so substituted other chopped nuts.
We’re planning to take it for lunch throughout the week and I’m so looking forward to it!
I’m so happy you both loved it!!
I have recently gone vegetarian and it has been hard to find recipes that Are tasty and easy to prepare. This hit all the marks!! Sweet, sour, salty, crunchy and delicious!! This recipe has been added to my rotating meal schedule. Thank you for this recipe!!
Aw thanks so much, I’m SO glad you loved it! Lots more vegetarian recipes here if you need some inspiration 🙂
Delicious, easy, and stored well as you said cant wait to make again. I didn’t read the whole post maybe you mentioned this this tip is helpful. I put lemon juice on the apples right after chopping to keep them from browning. Especially it was a good idea as we didn’t eat or dress it till the next day. I didn’t have time with my crazy kids that day to dress it. My kids loved it to. I left out the green onions and parsley as my kids don’t like it. And subbed maple syrup for the honey. As well as chopped dates instead of cherries and chopped Walnuts for the pecans as I dint have these ingredients. It was still so good I couldn’t stop eating it!
Delicious! Great crunch, and a wonderful combo of salty (just a touch) and sweet. The dressing was my favorite part – planning on making a big batch to keep in the fridge. Thanks for another great recipe!
I’m so happy you love this one, Michelle — thank you!
I had all the ingredients and was craving something healthy and crunchy!
I did, however, switch the dressing to my GF ranch.
The dressing is so good- I doubled it. I added cooked quinoa and instead of pecans, I used sunflower seeds coz my son has nuts allergy. Will definitely include this in my menu rotation. Thank you.
Nice! So happy you tried and loved it, Caryn 🙂
THIS SALAD IS AMAZING! IT’S MY FAVORITE SALAD EVER. DECIDED TO TOAST THE WALNUTS IN OLIVE OIL FIRST, ROAST THE CHICKPEAS IN THE OVEN, AND USE RAISINS INSTEAD OF DRIED CHERRIES AS THAT’S WHAT I HAD. WILL BE REMAKING FOR SURE
Yay!! So happy you loved it, Sarah. Thanks for leaving a review 🙂
So yummy! Love all the fresh healthies is this one. All the flavors really compliment eachother!
I also blanched the broccoli before adding it to the salad because of personal pref and it turned out really well 🙂
Nice! That’s a great idea. Happy you enjoyed it!