Festive Sprout Salad with Goat Cheese & Pomegranate

Shaved Sprout Salad with Pecans & 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.  

Shaved Sprout Salad with Pecans & Pomegranate..JPG

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!

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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!