Brussels Sprouts Chaat Salad

Is it weird to eat salad for breakfast? With all the holiday cheer of sweets and indulgent foods, I’ve been trying to achieve a balance and eat some good stuff too (like salad for breakfast)! Have you ever had salad for breakfast? Yesterday, we took our Papillon-mix to the groomer at 8 am and then I went back to sleep. I guess it’s a luxury for me right now to be able to go back to sleep or sleep in and wake up late. Since it was late-breakfast to early lunch-time, I had a brunch of Brussels sprouts salad with chaat masala.

Our dog playing with one of her Christmas presents from last year. A potato toy!

I got the idea to have Brussels sprouts salad from the nice blog Life through the kitchen window. The salad looks so awesome! I learned that the Flemish name for Brussels sprouts is spruitjes. I love saying it! It’s funner than the English word. Thank you for teaching us this! Lol. Check out the post!

However, like many cooks, I have a tendency to do weird stuff and add things to recipes. I love spicy foods and one of my favorite spice mixes lately has been chaat masala, so I wanted to do a spicy, sour, and sweet type of salad.

Prepping the Brussels sprouts. Cutting them this way makes a nice, fluffy and crunchy way to eat this vegetable. If you don’t like the core of the sprout, you can take it out. I just julienne them and keep them in the salad for the crunch and more textural experience. 🙂

While you are cutting the sprouts, soak the red onion slices in water to take off some of the astringent edge. Later, I cut the slices again in smaller pieces so it would be easier to eat in the salad.

Added some pomegranate to the salad. Forgot to get a shot of the Serrano chilies. I deseeded and sliced two Serranos.

Other ingredients: dried cherries, halved pistachios, and pepitas.

(traderjoes.com)

To give the sweet and sour flavors more uuumph, I used Trader Joe’s Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar in the vinaigrette. You could sub some lemon/lime juice or another vinegar if you don’t want to use this type of vinegar.

adapted from life through the kitchen window, which was originally adapted from Emmy Cooks

Serves ~2

Ingredients

• ~1/4 of a Red Onion, sliced
• 1/2 pound Brussels sprouts
• 2 green chilies (I used Serrano)
• Pomegranate arils
• Pistachios, halved
• Pumpkin seeds (Pepitas)
• Dried cherries

Vinaigrette

• 1 tablespoon Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar
• 1/2 tablespoon Lemon or Lime Juice
• 1/2 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon honey or your favorite sweetener
• 1-2 teaspoons Chaat Masala, plus more for garnish (I sometimes use MySpiceSage.com for spices since they have free shipping in the US and often give samples of other spices)
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon salad oil (I used Spanish Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

1. Soak the red onion in water while you prepare the salad components. Wash your Brussels sprouts and trim the tough end. To shred them, cut the sprout lengthwise in half and slice each half. The layers will separate and become julienned. For the parts that don’t separate, you can cut them again to create a julienne.
2. Deseed and slice the serrano peppers. Be careful! I always use gloves when dealing with hot chilies.
3. Whisk the vinegar, lime/lemon juice, water, honey, and chaat masala together until thoroughly mixed. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Add the oil and whisk until emulsified.
4. Drain the onions and slice into smaller pieces if desired. Toss the onions with Brussels sprouts, chilies, pomegranate arils, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, and dried cherries. Toss again with the chaat vinaigrette. Sprinkle some chaat masala on top of the salad. Done!

A spicy holiday spruitjes chaat salad. Enjoy!

Related articles

• Chaat Masala Chips – Two Ways (foodflavorfascination.wordpress.com)
• Spreading the Healthy Joy (planetmarsz.wordpress.com)
• Roasted Brussel Sprout Salad with Apple Cider Vinaigrette (greenandcleanmylife.wordpress.com)