Brussels Sprouts Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
Easily one of the best salads I've ever had - Creamy bacon-shallot dressing over shaved Brussels, pecans, feta, cranberries, apple, & crispy bacon. Amazing!
Servings 8
Ingredients
Ingredients for Dressing
- 1 pound pastured bacon cut into large pieces (I find Kitchen shears work best) and generously salted (if using cured bacon, don't add salt)
- 1 large clove garlic minced
- 2 large shallots minced
- 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp yellow mustard
- 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp arrowroot
- 3 Tbsp. honey or less, to taste
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- A few cracks of freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup cream fraiche or sour cream
Ingredients for the Salad
- 1 pound Brussels Sprouts whole or pre-shaved
- 2/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1 medium gold apple halved & then julienned (matchstick-size)
- 2/3 cup chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup feta cheese plus additional for garnish if desired
- 2/3 pound cooked and crumbled bacon reserved from dressing preparation
- Warm Bacon Dressing
Instructions
Directions for the Dressing
- Brown the bacon in a large saute pan. Remove bacon from pan and allow to cool, then crumble.
- To the hot pan of bacon drippings, add garlic and shallots. Cook, stirring continuously, until golden. Remove from heat.
- In a large bowl or glass jar with a lid, thoroughly mix all remaining ingredients except cream fraiche and cooked bacon. Add this to the garlic and shallots in the saute pan.
- Return the saute pan to the burner, add and whisk gently over low heat until the mixture thickens just slightly. Add about 1/3 of the crumbled bacon while the dressing is heating.
- Once thoroughly heated and slightly thickened, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cream fraiche.
- Add additional salt/pepper to taste. Serve warm.
Directions for the salad
- Remove stems and outer leaves from Brussels sprouts, then chop in halves and feed into a food processor, equipped with the slicing blade (Skip this step if using pre-shaved Brussels).
- In a large mixing bowl, toss all salad ingredients with the desired amount of warm bacon dressing (I used the entire batch of dressing).
- Top with a sprinkle of feta cheese (optional).
Notes
This salad is best served fresh with the warm dressing, but holds up well when stored too. I really like to gently heat the leftovers to reawaken the flavor of the dressing!