Festive Sprout Salad with Goat Cheese & Pomegranate
Serves 2 (with generous portions)
This salad. Oh the love I have for this salad is not normal. I only tend to make a shaved sprout salad around Christmas time, for obvious reasons but every time I do, I am reminded at quite how delicious these flavours are together. Given my job and how much time I spend in the kitchen, it gives me so much joy when my 8 year old daughter displays a passion and a flair for cooking too. I normally create recipes while my eldest are at school (read: in peace and quiet), but given that they have been off school isolating for what seems like an eternity, I don’t quite have the luxury of doing it solo. So when my daughter offered to make a dressing from scratch to go with the salad, I balked at the idea, imagining her combining some sort of chocolate powder with vinegar, and me having to pretend that I liked it.
However, to say I was pleasantly surprised would be the understatement of the year! This dressing (which she has appropriately called “Ruby Boom”) is hands down, the most delicious vinaigrette I have ever tasted in my life and she has now managed to negotiate a salary from me every time I want her to make a new batch (£1 for every batch she makes and 50p each time I re-make it, due to it being her intellectual property!). It is tangy and smoky and full of flavour, that it even works well on a simple leaf salad with nothing else but some shaved Parmesan and seeds. I urge you to try it and let me know what you think!
One portion (with puy lentils) provides 450 calories, 18g of meat-free protein and a massive 18g of fibre – that’s 60% of our recommended daily amount in one go! It also provides a whopping 156% of my daily Vitamin C as well as over a quarter of my Vitamin A; making it a great recipe to help support our immune systems too.
I also like this recipe because it is pretty versatile, if you are looking for a more substantial meal, then add some pre-cooked puy lentils but if you are looking for a lighter side salad, then just leave them out. And this salad lasts for a few days stored in the fridge as long as you don’t add the avocado, simply slice that when you are ready to serve it.
INGREDIENTS
For the Salad:
· 200g Brussels Sprouts
· Seeds from ½ Pomegranate
· Handful Pecans
· 1 Avocado
· 100g Crunchy Roast Chickpeas/Cannellini Beans (Check my Reels on how to!)
· 45g Crumbled Goats Cheese
· 6 Spring Onions – finely chopped
· Handful Fresh Chives - chopped
· Optional: 100g pre-cooked Puy Lentils (I used Merchant Gourmet)
· Optional: Black Garlic cloves if you can get your hands on some!
For the Dressing:
· Juice & Zest from 1 Lemon
· Olive Oil
· Smoked Paprika
· Smoked Garlic Granules (any garlic granules would work)
· White Balsamic Vinegar (I used Belazu)
· Parmesan - grated
· Salt & Pepper to taste
Check out my daughter’s recipe writing and don’r forget to “diloot” it with water if it’s too thick!
METHOD
· Whisk together all of the ingredients for the vinaigrette and set aside.
· Finely slice the sprouts into thin strips.
· Finely slice the spring onions.
· Dry fry the pecans in a clean frying pan over a medium heat (no oil) for a few minutes, until just starting to brown. But keep stirring as they can burn very easily!
· Slice the avocado.
· Assemble the salad and enjoy!