Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad with Baby Kale and Avocado Dressing

I’ve been eating this salad for dinner almost every night for two weeks straight. I guess I needed something hearty and a regular lettuce salad wasn’t going to cut it. Brussels sprouts have gained a lot of traction over the years. It’s rare to go to a restaurant that doesn’t have a roasted or fried Brussels sprouts appetizer. Did you know they’re really good raw too!? The key is to shaving them very thin with a mandolin. They can be the star of a salad or sprinkled in with some leafy greens for extra crunch and heartiness!

This salad is crisp and refreshing. The avocado vinaigrette dressing lends some tangy acidity and has a real kick to it. I first made a vinaigrette dressing without the avocado and it kind of got lost. I ended up using a lot and still thought it lacked in flavor. I decided it needed to be thicker to really coat the Brussels so I replaced the oil with avocado. Because it’s thicker, I found myself using less.

I don’t know about you but a vegetable salad without any protein doesn’t keep me full or satiated for very long! I feel like I need something else to eat an hour later! I added quinoa to bump up the protein to help combat this.

Let’s get nerdy and talk about protein for a second. Proteins are made up of polypeptides. Polypeptides are made up of amino acids. Stay with me, I swear this will make sense! Amino acids are the building blocks to proteins. Think of amino acids as individual letters. When you combine letters together you make words. Let’s think of these words as polypeptides. When you combine words together you make sentences. These sentences are proteins.

There are 20 amino acids total (letters). We, as humans, can naturally make 11 of these amino acids in our bodies. The other 9 have to come from our diet, so they’re called essential amino acids (essential to our diet). Without these 9, our body can’t form proteins (think: sentences can’t be formed without words, and words can’t be formed without all of the letters).

A complete protein means it contains the 9 essential amino acids. Quinoa is a complete protein. This makes Quinoa a great grain for vegetarians. Adding quinoa to a salad is an easy way to add protein. It’s fairly flavorless and will take on the taste of whatever sauce or dressing you mix it with. When making something that would normally call for white or brown rice, I replace it with quinoa for the protein factor. White and brown rice are not complete protein sources. Brown rice and quinoa have similar nutrition profiles per serving, but quinoa has the better protein quality.

Most salads don’t do well in the fridge a day later but I was still eating this two days later. Leave the dressing off if you plan on making it ahead of time or know it won’t be eaten in one sitting. Side note – I was a little ambitious one night with how much I thought I could eat. I mixed the dressing into a big bowl of salad and didn’t finish it. I put the leftovers in some Tupperware and crossed my fingers that it would still be good the next day and it was!

The easies way to prepare the Brussels sprouts is with a mandolin. I’ve had my mandolin slicer FOREVER!!! I believe I bought it from an infomercial when I was in high school and it’s still in great shape. Mandolins don’t discriminate between fingers and food so watch out! They’re really sharp! If you don’t have one, get one. It will make your life so much easier!

Notes About Ingredients

Brussels Sprouts – These pint-sized veggies are high in fiber, vitamin A, K and C. You will mostly find them in the fall and winter. I see still them at the farmer’s market in July though.

Blue Cheese – If you don’t like blue cheese, you could use a different cheese like extra sharp cheddar. I ran out of blue cheese on one of the nights I was eating this and shredded extra sharp cheddar on top and it was still great. If you’re keeping this vegan, then leave out the cheese and replace it with dried cranberries to keep the tanginess.

Pecans – Nuts can be lightly toasted first to bring out more of their flavors. Heat them in a dry skillet over low heat for a few minutes. Shake consistently until they just start to turn a little darker in color. Make sure these are completely cooled before putting them in the salad. You could substitute walnuts or pine nuts for the pecans.

Quinoa – An easy way to add complete protein to the salad making it a meal. Read above to learn more about complete protein.

Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad with Baby Kale and Avocado Dressing

Serves: 4-6 Prep Time: 20 Minutes

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

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Ingredients

• Salad
• 1 lb. Brussels sprouts - washed and dried
• 2 1/2 cups baby kale - washed and dried
• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 1 small red onion (only using about 1/4-1/2 of the onion)
• 1/3 cup pecan pieces
• 3 oz. crumbled blue cheese (more if you want to sprinkle some on top)
• Dressing
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/4 cup avocado mashed
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 1/2 Tbsp dijon mustard
• 2 tsp honey
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Instructions

1. Trim the Brussels sprouts ends and discard any outer leaves that are discolored or sticking out.  Thinly slice the Brussels sprouts with a mandolin.  If you don't have a mandolin, then you can slice them as thin as possible with a knife.  If you have a food processor with a slicing disk you could also use that.  The goal is to get them as thin as possible. 
2. Thinly slice the red onion with the mandolin or knife.  I used about 1/2 of a small onion.  Then cut the onion disks in half and the larger pieces in half again.
3. Combine the Brussels sprouts, kale, onion, quinoa, and pecan pieces into a bowl and mix.
4. Next make the dressing with a food processor.  Put the garlic clove in the food processor and pulse a few times until it's chopped into small pieces.  Add the avocado, vinegar, lemon juice, honey, dijon mustard and salt.  Pulse until thoroughly blended.  The dressing is pretty strong.  Take a little salad out and mix with a little bit of dressing in a separate bowl and taste.  If you need to tone it down you can add a little bit of honey or oil.  
5. If serving/eating right away, mix 1/2 the dressing with the salad until evenly coated.  Add more dressing as needed.  Sprinkle in blue cheese crumbles and mix gently.  Serve and enjoy! 

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