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Raw Brussels Sprouts Salad with Walnuts & Gruyere

There are lots of great food blogs I read that are focused on a specific food niche, and that have great recipes even though I don’t fall into the group of eaters they target. Gluten-Free Girl is one such blog. I don’t eat a gluten-free diet, but Shauna has some great vegetable-based recipes on our site that even a die-hard wheat eater would love. This recipe for Brussels Sprouts Salad originally comes from her site.

I adore Roasted Brussels Sprouts and make them often, but I’d never tried them raw. I cannot tell you how much I loved this salad. Shredding the Brussels sprouts make them feathery and light, even though my container had been kicking around in the fridge for a couple of weeks. I can only imagine how delicious it would be with CSA or farmer’s market sprouts. Add in the toasted walnut and Gruyere with a bit of vinaigrette, and you have a dish with enough protein to call a meal. I ate a huge plate of this stuff for lunch the day after I made it, and I liked the flavors even more. The Brussels sprouts easily stand up to a night in the dressing, and don’t wilt like other greens might. This is definitely a recipe to try this summer — I’ll be making it again.

Raw Brussels Sprouts Salad with Walnuts & Gruyere
Adapted from Brussels Sprouts Salad

1 10-oz. container of fresh Brussels sprouts, trimmed
3-4 oz. shredded Gruyere cheese
1/2 c. chopped walnuts, toasted & cooled (otherwise they’ll melt the cheese)
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
4 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. whole grain mustard
1 tsp. honey
salt and pepper to taste

Using the slicing disc on your food processor, feed the whole Brussels sprouts into the machine until they are shredded. Switch to the shredding blade to prepare the Gruyere. Toss the sprouts, cheese, and toasted walnuts in a medium bowl and set aside.

To prepare the dressing, whisk vinegar, olive oil, mustard and honey together. Pour over the salad and toss. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

3 Comments June 13, 2011

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette & Gorgonzola

I found a recipe for Grilled Sweet Potato Salad with Green Onion, Basil, Thyme, and Feta on Kalyn’s Kitchen and figured it was fate: I had all the ingredients in my house already, which is unusual. We don’t eat a lot of sweet potatoes so I don’t keep them on hand. I also had feta left over from Greek Quinoa Salad, and a bottle of balsamic vinaigrette.

Instead of grilling the sweet potatoes, I peeled and sliced them, and then tossed them in a quarter-cup of dressing. Then I placed them in a single layer on a foil-lined cookie sheet, and baked them for 20 minutes at 400° F. J. felt they should have been cooked longer; I thought they were fine as is but I will bake them for an extra 5 minutes next time. I wasn’t in the mood for feta, so I substituted Gorgonzola cheese instead — just a quarter cup.

Me, J., and my mom all really enjoyed the flavor of this salad. It’s got a lot going on: the sweetness of the potatoes, creaminess of cheese, crisp freshness of the green onions, and depth of thyme. It’s a very unusual side dish and one we’ll repeat. I’ll also try it without cheese, to serve kosher-style with burgers on the grill.

3 Comments May 26, 2011

Greek Quinoa Salad

This recipe for Greek Quinoa Salad comes from A Girl and Her Carrot. It is a good gateway dish for trying quinoa, if you have been reluctant to do so. I’m a big fan of Greek salads to begin with, and adding a grain (ok, a grass) to the mix is a nice riff on a traditional mix of vegetables.

I served the Greek Quinoa Salad with grilled eggplant, and hummus (store-bought) on baguettes. We ate dinner outside on our patio, and as I looked over my plate it occurred to me that this meal is the type of cooking I ultimately aspire to. The dinner was most importantly, delicious. But it was also inherently healthy without feeling like we were giving up taste or satiety in exchange. I’m able to get that feeling out of vegetable-based soups sometimes, so it was a little thrilling to find it in a salad-based meal as well.

May 18, 2011

Mediterranean Crunch Salad

I originally saw this Whole Foods recipe for Mediterranean Crunch Salad on Facebook, and shared it on my Chick in the Kitchen Facebook page. Several people commented favorably about the recipe, so I decided to make it to go with our Mother’s Day brunch of bagels and appetizing (lox, whitefish salad, baked salmon… the works!). However, it was J. that wound up chopping, chopping, chopping all morning long when I got behind schedule.

He is much faster at vegetable prep than I am, and I am not exaggerating when I say it took him at least 45 minutes to wash, trim, and dice everything in this salad. We left out the kale and added a yellow pepper instead, which brought a nice bright color to the mix as well as some sweetness. At first taste, neither of us loved this salad, and J. was annoyed with how long it had taken to prepare. An hour after mixing it together (the recipe says to chill it for that length of time) it was a little better, but it still just tasted like cubes of vegetables with vinegar. I didn’t hear anyone mention that they liked it during the brunch, either.

However, I was determined to eat all the leftovers so J.’s hard work did not go to waste. And the next day, this salad was great! The herbs, vinegar, and garlic melded into a flavorful dressing. The broccoli, pepper, and onion had softened a little, taking a bit of the titular “crunch” out of this chopped salad and helping all those vegetables form a kind of multi-veg experience rather than each one fighting to be its own flavor. One of the Facebook comments suggested added feta cheese to the mix, and I did that on my final serving of salad — the saltiness of the feta complimented the now-marinated vegetables perfectly.

I really like chopped salads, so I know we’ll make some kind of similar version of this again… especially if I can convince J. to do the chopping.

1 Comment May 11, 2011