Extra Baconey Amish Broccoli Salad Recipe

This Extra Baconey Amish Broccoli Salad is so simple to make and is a great side salad for a weeknight meal, great for a potluck, or perfect for a holiday dish. A perfect accompaniment for a filling main course. We add some extra bacon and smoked cheese to make this something really special! These additions help give our Extra Baconey Amish Broccoli Salad unique flavors that separate this dish from the norm. Plus, who doesn’t love bacon?

Extra Baconey Amish Broccoli Salad Summary

This Amish Broccoli Salad recipe is easy to make. There really are very few ingredients and a guy doesn’t need to spend hours toiling over a stove. Assuming you have already made the bacon, it is just a matter of mixing and allowing the salad to rest. 

Our version is just a bit more delicious than the rest. We start off with a traditional recipe, but then kick it up a few notches. This recipe has quite a bit of bacon in it, and that can’t be bad, can it? We also use smoked cheddar cheese, which helps give a bit more flavor that is shared with bacon. These changeups on the traditional recipe make it better if you are a bacon lover.

We know about bacon at Ramshackle Pantry. Did you know that I co-wrote the novelty cookbook, Fifty Shades of Bacon[Affiliate Link] back in 2012? I did and it was my love letter to bacon, but maybe this specific recipe can be a love note to your dinner table.

Great for Holidays or Dinner Side Dish

This is an easy recipe to throw together. It is best if it can sit in the refrigerator for a few hours and preferably overnight, so it does require a bit of resting time. The active time, however, is so minimal that it is great to make for your Easter, Christmas, or Thanksgiving gatherings. 

It is great as a way to save you time and can be a simple, but tasty, dish to bring to your potluck. Because we zinged it up with a bit of smokey cheese and extra bacon, it will have a bit of extra flair and flavor.

Type of Cheese

I use smoked cheddar cheese for this dish and what cheese you use can be a great way to express your own flavors and personality. Because bacon is a smoked product, I wanted to get a bit more bacon flavor and while smoke in the cheese does not directly add bacon, the smoke does help give bacon feeling to the dish. Since bacon is also smoked, the smoke flavor can sometimes give the illusion of bacon flavors.

Another cheese I was thinking about using for this recipe was a pepper jack. I think that could add a nice zing to the traditional recipe and change it up ever so slightly. I use smoked cheddar cheese, but use what you like or have.

Couldn’t You have Added More Bacon?

Yes, and I experimented with different ways I could do this, but they all fell somewhat short. It isn’t that they were bad salads, but I just thought about what I came up with tended to be more work than it was worth.

One avenue I explored was making some bacon mayonnaise. I actually did this and the mayo was great, but the process of making bacon mayo is really about adding bacon (and a little grease) to the mayo. Is it worth making a separate mayo if I am just adding it to the recipe anyways? I didn’t think so.

Another thing I looked at was bacon cheese, which I know that some places make. I could not find any readily available at my local grocer, so I settled on smoked cheddar cheese. In fact, I think I am happier with smoked cheddar, as it can really have a nice smokey forward taste and likely adds more flavor than a bacon cheese.

How Small to Chop the Cauliflower and Broccoli?

Don’t think too much about this. Just make them small enough so a person can fit each morsel into their mouth. The last thing you want to do is make this salad uncomfortable to eat. Just get those pieces small enough so that they are easy enough to handle with a fork and spoon.

Letting The Salad Sit

Like any mayonnaise salad that also has white granular sugar, you are best served by allowing the salad to rest and cool for a while. You could serve the salad immediately in a pinch, but there will be a taste difference from the recipe as I instruct you to prepare it.

Allowing this Amish Broccoli Salad to rest in the refrigerator will allow the flavors to incorporate fully and give the sugar time to really bring the recipe together. Allow the dish to sit for a while.

Amish Broccoli Salad Tips

• Let the salad sit for at least two hours, but preferably overnight, before serving.
• Mix wet ingredients and then incorporate the rest
• My puppy loves broccoli and cauliflower. I keep the stalks and dole them out as treats.

Products I Used in this Recipe

• Large Glass Bowl with Cover
• Rubber Spat

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