Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad
For those who think you don’t like Brussels Sprouts, pause… let’s see what happens to them when we add a decent flavor profile. This healthy, clean salad is crunchy, flavorful, and interesting all in one bite. It’s fresh like summer, crisp like springtime, and full of fall and winter flavors. A perfect snack, app, or dinner if eating light. Makes me think that maybe some Instagram Reels are worth watching…
what you need
1 bag of Brussels Sprouts
1/4 cup Thompson raisins
1 red pear, diced
1/4 cup roasted pistachios (you could also use Marcona almonds)
3/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
1 handful of fresh mint, sliced
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1/8 cup olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste
how to make it
Remove outer leaves on Brussels Sprouts and cut them top down in thin strips, breaking them apart in a large bowl.
Add the raisins, diced pear, pistachios, cheese, and mint, and toss to combine. Squeeze lemon juice and add olive oil on top, tossing once more to combine thoroughly.
Enjoy!
Watermelon Feta Salad
Sometimes when the summer turns hot and the appetite begins to naturally wane, the fresh and light, zesty and fruitful begin to take precedence over the hearty. My solution to that is a collection of fruit-forward glorified snack meals that inventively leverage my latest CSA harvest and don’t fill me up to the point of sluggish. Summertime is the time for watermelon – the hydrating, vibrant, impossibly sweet fruit that gave me my childhood moniker ‘Watermelonie.’ A favorite springtime flavor combination is strawberry-basil or strawberry-mint. Turns out that this also works well with watermelon. So if you’ve got one to spare this summer, try this as a salad or a snack. It’s got 3-4 total ingredients and won’t disappoint in the flavor category.
Peach Caprese
This is a continuation of my summer eats glorified snack dinners (see Watermelon Feta Salad). For when the summer months take hold, the cicadas ring true, and the humidity is as thick and sticky as fresh Florida honey against a sunset sky, you need something super fresh! During these months, my CSA tends to have all-you-can-take tomatoes, which the Piemaker and I willingly turn into tomato-soup-and-grilled-cheese-movie-marathons (see Roasted Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese recipes – forthcoming). All you need for this recipe is one of those tomatoes and a handful of garden basil. I fancy it up a bit here with a sweet nectarine and some unnecessary accoutrement, but it does not disappoint as an appetizer, snack, or full summertime dinner plate.
The Florida Salad
This salad takes me home. Back to my home town in Florida to be exact. Crafted out of inspiration from Crush Xl – a young, vibey restaurant local to Melbourne that takes salads to another level. At first, this salad may look a little strange (rice noodles and coconut?). Fair. But you’d be surprised what a cup of mango, flakes of toasted coconut, & a handful of mint leaves can do to a dish. See for yourself…
Thanks! Do you have a cookbook?
Thanks, Mary. Unfortunately, I do not. Just the blog and the Instagram for now!