As I mentioned last Friday, I contributed a salad to our extended family’s Thanksgiving meal this year, and it turned out great! So great, in fact, I wanted to be sure to share the recipe with you lovely readers.
This was a recipe that I learned about when my friend Bethany (who’s also an amazing cook — bonus!) made the dish for Kevin and me a few weeks ago. (She paired it with an incredibly delicious jalapeno mac and cheese. YUM.)
If you’re serving this salad at an event like I did last week, I’d recommend prepping the dressing and the produce but not mixing them together until about a half hour before the meal. That way, the salad has some time to marinate but won’t get soggy.
The original recipe calls for soy sauce-glazed pumpkin seeds as opposed to sunflower seeds, but I didn’t have the best of luck with those (mine burned in the oven quickly and went from tasting delightfully salty to straight-up charred), and so I subbed sunflower seeds instead, which achieved a similar effect and were far more fool-proof.
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon whole-grain mustard
- 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 Tablespoon plus one teaspoon maple syrup
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 8 ounces (about 3 cups) shredded Brussels sprouts (the lovely folks at Trader Joe’s sell Brussels sprouts already shredded!)
- 6 kale leaves, stemmed and shredded
- 1 grapefruit, sliced
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries or cherries
- 1/3 cup salted sunflower seeds
Directions
- Whisk together the mustard, vinegar, salt, maple syrup, and olive oil in a small mixing bowl.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the Brussels sprouts, kale, sunflower seeds, cherries, and grapefruit. Add dressing to larger bowl and toss to coat. Adjust to taste with salt as necessary.
- For best results, let the salad marinate for about 30 minutes prior to being served.