Winter is here, the holidays have passed and life is returning to normal. Hopefully. And we are all maybe thinking a bit more about healthier eating (though I haven’t quite finished all the Christmas chocolate). In summer, the bounty for big, fresh salads is so immense, but in the colder months, it can be a little but hard to find inspiration. But this big bowl of delicious combines wintery bitter greens, softer little gem lettuces, crispy apples, crunchy pecans, tangy goat cheese and bright pops of pomegranate. The apple dressing adds a sweet and creamy note.
There is a little work involved here, but it is worth it, slicing all the elements thinly. A mandoline works for most of it, but I do use the food processor for the sprouts, because doing each one separately is time consuming and a little tricky. You can sometimes buy shredded sprouts in the bagged salad section, which is fine, but I sometimes think they have a lot of hard stemmed pieces. The good news is that all the parts can be done ahead of time, which also makes this a great salad for transporting to an event. If you can’t find little gem lettuces, use romaine hearts. I used a combinaiton of pale green and red-tinged endive for this, but all of one or the other will do. I love tossing in some purchased glazed pecans for a little sweet, crunchy kick, but you can certainly do it yourself or just add some toasted plain pecans – or walnuts for that matter. I buy those little cups of pomegranate seeds because I am way too lazy to do it from a whole fruit, but you can if you like, or substitute some dried cranberries, maybe plumped up in a little water or juice.
Ingredients
- For the Dressing
½ honeycrisp apple
1 small shallot
¼ cup white wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
½ cup olive oil
Salt and pepper
- For the Salad
1 pound brussels sprouts
3 little gem lettuce
2 endives, red if available
2 medium shallots
1 ½ honeycrisp apples
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
½ cup glazed pecans
2 ounces Pomegranate seeds
4 ounce log goat cheese
Directions
- For the Dressing
- Cut the apple and the shallot into chunks and put in a blender. Add the vinegar, mustard honey and lemon juice and olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and a couple of grinds of pepper and blend until smooth and creamy. You can make this several hours ahead and refrigerate in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake well before serving.
- For the Salad
- Put the lemon juice in a bowl and add some water. Cut apples into a small dice and put them in the acidulated water and toss to coat. This prevents the apples from browning. Dice pretty small, so you get every element in each forkful. You can soak them several hours ahead.
- Remove any wilted outer leaves from the sprouts and the hard ends. You want to shave the sprouts, which I do in a food processor with the slicing blade, but you can also do on a mandoline. Put the shaved sprouts in a bowl. Remove any bruised outer leaves from the endives, the cut them in half and thinly slice, either with the mandoline or a knife (the food processor doesn’t work well). Add to the sprouts and toss to combine. Remove any wilted outer leaves from the little gems, cut them in half then cut into thin ribbons with a sharp knife and add to the bowl. Peel the shallots, cut in half and thinly slice with a knife or carefully on the mandoline. Leave on the cutting board until ready to assemble the salad, don’t add them in until serving time. You can do all of this several hours ahead, refrigerating the leaves.
- When ready to serve, drain the apples and add to the salad leaves in the bowl with the shallots and toss to distribute everything evenly. Add the pecans, pomegranate seed and crumbled goat cheese and toss. Pour over the vinaigrette a bit at a time, tossing to coat the salad until it is dressed to your liking.
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