Liz’s Roasted Broccoli Salad

August 20, 2021

Close-up of roasted broccoli, bacon, lemon zest, sourdough croutons, and feta cheese.

Here’s the thing I want you to know about this roasted broccoli salad:

It’s quite possibly my favorite way I’ve ever eaten broccoli in my life.

My friend Liz introduced me to this salad, which was introduced to her by another friend, Amanda, and isn’t that just how the best recipes go? From one food-loving person to another, and onto another, and now here, to your screen, ready for you to devour in 5 seconds flat.

The ingredients here are humble and low-key, but together they make a FLAVOR BANG:

shallot
bacon
feta
lemon
broccoli
sourdough

Throw in some olive oil, salt, pepper, and you are ready to embark on a beautiful roasted broccoli journey.

Ingredients in bowls for Roasted Broccoli Salad. Each ingredient has a purple label over the top with the name of the ingredient.

This Has Everything You Could Want In a Salad

The flavors in this are just everything I want in all my meals ever: tangy, crunchy, slightly bitter and bright from the lemon zest, salty from the crisped-up bacon, and all built around a big bowl of roasted broccoli, which, in and of itself is a true hero.

Reasons I love this as an SOS meal:

It’s incredibly delicious. Good food, good mood. Instant lift.
The actual hands-on prep for this is so minimal. Basically everything happens on a sheet pan, leaving you plenty of time to… not be in the kitchen.
This is super customizable. For example, if you wanted to really bulk it up you could add some rotisserie chicken or some more roasted veggies.
It actually keeps really nicely as leftovers. The bread is the one tricky thing that can get soggy, so just keep those croutons nice and dry in a separate container. But truly, this salad can be eaten and enjoyed hot, cold, room temp – I know you’re going to question it but I have even eaten these leftovers for breakfast. Riding that SOS train all the way to the very last stop.

I don’t want you to be jealous, but as I write this, there is a sheet pan of broccoli, bacon, and shallots in my oven.

My house smells amazing, I will be eating this soon, and IT IS A GLORIOUS DAY.

Roasted broccoli salad on a plate with lemon slices and a fork.

Roasted Broccoli Salad: FAQs

I’m all out of bacon! What can I sub?

Pancetta would be delicious! Just dice it up into tiny cubes – or lots of grocery stores sell pancetta pre-cubed (SOS win!). Then fry it up in a pan for a few minutes and toss it on the salad.

How long do leftovers stay good?

If you can store the broccoli and other ingredients separate from the sourdough croutons, this will stay well for about 3-5 days in a sealed container in the fridge. If the croutons are mixed with the dressing and other ingredients, they might break down quicker and get soggy the next day. But, I mean, I’ve eaten it as slightly soggy leftovers, and it’s still very delicious.

This looks great! Is this a full meal?

This salad is incredibly filling! It has bread, bacon, cheese, and roasted broccoli (not to mention a nice coating of olive oil) but if you’d like to pair something else with it, these chicken meatballs or even a quick store-bought rotisserie chicken would be great.

Can I use frozen broccoli?

Absolutely! The main thing to note is that the frozen broccoli option takes a little longer to cook in the oven. So that your other ingredients don’t overcook, you can either remove the shallots from the pan after 20-30 minutes or start the broccoli first and add the shallots to the pan 10-15 minutes later.

Prefer To Watch Instead Of Read?

Watch Lindsay make this Broccoli Salad on stories!

Liz’s Roasted Broccoli Salad

5 from 35 reviews

Author: Lindsay
Total Time: 40 minutes
Yield: 6-ish servings

Print Recipe

Description

This Roasted Broccoli Salad is EVERYTHING! Bright lemon, crisped-up bacon, tangy feta, and it’s all built around a big bowl of roasted broccoli. A true hero of a meal!

Ingredients

Units

Roasted Broccoli

2 bags of broccoli florets (24 ounces total)
olive oil
salt

The Extras

12 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
1–2 shallots, thinly sliced
4 ounces crumbled feta
3–4 thick slices sourdough, cut into cubes
zest of 2 lemons
lemon juice to taste
1 clove garlic, grated
salt, pepper, olive oil to finish

Instructions

Video

Roast broccoli, bacon, and shallot: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place broccoli on a large sheet pan, on one side. Place bacon and shallots on the other side. (If you’re running out of room you can separate this onto two sheet pans.) Drizzle broccoli with a little olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Roast everything for 20-30 minutes, until things are nice and browned. Transfer broccoli, bacon, and shallots to a bowl.
Make sourdough croutons: Turn the oven temp down to 375 degrees. Drain off excess bacon fat if needed, and then add sourdough to the bacon pan and toss to coat in the bacon fat. Add more olive oil or butter as needed to get the croutons evenly coated. Bake for 5-7 minutes until crispy and lightly browned.
Toss and serve: Toss broccoli, bacon, and shallot with feta (add it while everything is hot so it melts a little bit! so yum), lemon zest and lemon juice, and sourdough croutons. Finish with a clove of freshly grated garlic, if you can handle the bite, which I most definitely can! Also: salt, pepper, and olive oil to taste. You can eat this hot or cold or room temp, and it will be so delicious all of the above ways.