Last night I broke all the rules and served – gasp – a brussel sprout salad! Here’s what transpired. In almost every southern regional cookbook you can find a recipe for Broccoli Salad. The recipes may differ slightly, but the basic premise is chopped up broccoli, onions, some kind of nuts, vinegar, sugar, and a healthy scoop of mayo. They may have cheese, or bacon, or raisins, or all of the above, but anyway you mix it up, I still love Broccoli Salad. It’s been a staple at buffets and potluck dinners since – well – I don’t know, probably long before I toddled up to the table. I crave that salad, but since neither broccoli or mayonnaise are popular ingredients in my house, I thought I might re-do the whole idea, see if I could sneak the salad on our dinner plates, and maybe, just maybe, get a thumbs up.
The first thing I did was to ditch the broccoli and substitute very thinly sliced brussel sprouts. Brussel sprout salads seem to be trending along with kale and other greens once only destined for the stovetop. The thing is, no one is really on the fence about brussel sprouts, it’s a love/hate affair – or so I believe. It’s possible, actually probable, that a lot of vegetable hatred arises from the over-cooked mush of our youth. I grew up – like many of my friends- thinking spinach only came from a can and something as exotic as a brussel sprout must be boiled long enough to make sure it was really dead!
The deal is, if you slice raw brussel sprouts paper thin and dress them nicely, you can fool some of the people some of the time. At least that worked for me!
Hint: Toast in Microwave for 1-2 Minutes
Let’s modify this by saying this worked because I combined the brussel sprouts with beautiful thin slices of Gala apple, toasted walnuts, fresh tarragon, blue cheese and simple maple vinaigrette. There – whatever it takes; we had brussel sprouts last night and it was a family affair! I’ll make this many more times this fall. I may add a bit of crumbled bacon or throw in a raisin or two, but last night I served a beautiful fall salad that began as an experiment and will now be a welcome addition to our fall and winter dinner table. Cheers for the brussel sprout! Long may it live!
Brussel Sprout and Apple Salad
Ingredients
½ lb brussel sprouts, thinly sliced (I used the slicer on my food processor – but easy to do by hand)
1 small apple, cored and thinly sliced
Optional: 1 Tbsp julienned fresh tarragon leaves
½ cup onion, thinly sliced
½ cup toasted walnuts (you could use any nut you like or have on hand)
¼ cup blue cheese crumbled
Salt and pepper to taste
Dressing
2 Tbsp Sherry or Balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp maple syrup (real please)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp honey or Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
Directions
Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl.
Combine dressing ingredients in a jar and shake it up.
Pour dressing over salad and serve.
