Shredded Brussels Sprouts Salad: Beautiful and Versatile
Written by Rebecca Peters-Golden
One of the bummers about salad is that, if you’re like me and you’re preparing food for one person, you always end up with odds and ends of your veggies left over.
Call me irritable (I am definitely irritable), but staring at half a cucumber, half a tomato, half a pepper, etc., annoys me.
They take up space in my refrigerator, waste plastic bags, and, if I don’t finish them in a day or two, the veggies turn to liquid fertilizer and have to be tossed (and not in the nice, salad-y way).
So though I love salad, in the winter I find myself defaulting to leftover-friendly roasted veggies more than raw. This year, though, I was determined to winterize my salad.
The results? A shredded Brussels sprout salad that I’m pretty obsessed with (read: eat at least twice a week). Not only does it taste amazing, but it also has convenience to recommend it.
Brussels sprouts, being a hearty miracle food, will basically last in your refrigerator until the end of time (okay, maybe three weeks) as long as they’re not wet.
That means you can use some of them to make your salad tonight, roast some next week, and still keep a few on hand to make another salad for lunch two weeks later.
No waste; no rotting; no getting sick of your delicious food because you have to eat it three days in a row.
You may have noticed that this salad looks rather impressive–those pretty ribbons of sprout! I definitely thought so the first time I encountered it in a restaurant.
It’s actually quite easy to do it at home, though, as long as you have a mandoline. A small, handheld mandoline like my serviceable little OXO model
(only $15) is an unexpectedly handy kitchen tool.
It’s easy to clean and makes quick work of slicing all vegetables (even those pesky on-the-edge-of-going-bad ones) into any salad (or pasta, or couscous, or slaw for that matter) so that your ingredients will blend nicely.
Editor’s Note:
If you’re ready to spend a few more dollars, I recommend the De Buyer Kobra slicer for razor-sharp slicing and micro-adjustable thickness.
And for a tighter grip on your vegetables than the mandoline’s plastic hand guard can provide, pick up a washable cutproof kitchen glove (also known as an oyster glove) for guaranteed safety when slicing.
Because this salad looks fancy, it’s great for company, but also for a quick lunch on the go. You can make the dressing the day before, if you like, and you can shred those sprouts hours ahead of time and they won’t lose their crispness.
But my favorite thing about this salad is its versatility. Here are a few variations I particularly love.
3 Ways to Flavor Your Shredded Brussels Sprouts Salad
- Fry up some bacon and crumble it and some hardboiled egg for a lovely breakfast-inspired salad.
For bonus deliciousness, sub bacon grease for the oil in your dressing; it’ll give it a really rich flavor and the Brussels sprouts are hearty enough to stand up to it, unlike wimpy lettuce. - Go for a Mediterranean flavor profile like in my favorite tuna salad. Chop up bread and butter pickles, kalamata olives, and capers and add to the salad along with some crumbled feta cheese.
Use the pickle juice as the vinegar in your dressing for a tangy, bright flavor, and top with fresh parsley. - Add chopped avocado, a little pan-fried corn, and some chopped tomato for more of a taco salad. Bonus: throw in some cumin-scented black beans, some crushed tortilla chips, and top with fresh cilantro.
There really is no end to the delicious additions you can make. Any raw veggie is fair game–chopped spinach, kale, scallions, and cucumber are particularly good.
Want to add more protein?
Both vegetarian and meat-based options go well with this salad. I’ve added:
- pistachios
- pumpkin seeds
- chopped pecans
- roasted chickpeas
- leftover sautéed ground lamb from my kofta meatballs
Once you have the ratio for making the salad base and dressing, your fridge is the limit!
Shredded Brussels Sprouts Salad
Shredded Brussels sprouts salad with tangy honey Dijon vinaigrette is a crunchy, refreshing way to get your vegetables in winter.
Ingredients
Roasted Garlic Dijon Vinaigrette
- 1 head of garlic, unpeeled
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar or lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons honey
- kosher salt
- ground black pepper
Salad
- 15-20 large Brussels sprouts to yield 2 1/2-3 cups of shredded sprouts
- 3 medium radishes
- 1 small beet
- 1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
- 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds or pepitas
Instructions
Make the dressing:
- Preheat the oven (or toaster oven) to 250 degrees F.
- Slice off the top of the garlic head so the cloves are exposed and put it face-down in a very small oven-safe bowl or casserole dish.
- Pour the olive oil into the bowl.
- Roast the garlic for 45 minutes to an hour, until the garlic cloves are soft and spreadable but not burnt.
- Remove from the oven until the garlic is cool enough to touch.
- Pour the olive oil into a mixing bowl or mason jar and squeeze as many cloves out of the head as you like into the bowl.
- Whisk together to break up the cloves and start assembling the dressing—the garlic makes a thicker dressing that really drapes over the shredded sprouts.
- Leftover roasted garlic and oil will keep in the fridge in an airtight jar for a few weeks. If you don't have time to roast garlic, or you don't like garlic, just use regular olive oil for the dressing.
- Add vinegar or your acid of choice, honey, and mustard to the oil and garlic and whisk or shake to combine.
- Taste, and season with salt and pepper. Leftover dressing will keep nicely in the fridge in an airtight jar for about a week.
Prepare the salad:
- Remove any discolored leaves from the Brussels sprouts and chop the root end off each sprout if using the mandoline's hand guard. If using a cutproof glove, leave the root end attached as a "handle" for you to hold.
- Shave your sprouts, and don't worry that some of the pieces are a little uneven. When you toss the salad it'll all combine, and it's nice to have those different textures.
- Shave the radishes into thin coins on the mandoline.
- Peel and grate the beet with a box cutter or julienne slicer.
- Toss the Brussels sprouts, radishes, beets, goat cheese, and seeds together in a bowl.
- Shake your dressing to make sure it's combined, and dress your salad.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 2 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 982Total Fat: 77gSaturated Fat: 15gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 57gCholesterol: 13mgSodium: 857mgCarbohydrates: 53gFiber: 14gSugar: 25gProtein: 36g
The nutritional information above is computer-generated and only an estimate.
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