This brussels sprouts, cranberry and bacon salad is one of those salads that could become a new regular. It is amazing what you can do with just a few ingredients and... it is healthy too. Delicious!
Wash and clean of any yellow/rough/damaged looking leaves (if any) the Brussels sprouts.
Shred or chop them nicely and place all in a larger bowl.
Fry the bacon till nice and crispy (pancetta works really well too). I sometimes use ready-made crispy bacon from the supermarket.
Chop the onions, bacon and add to the shredded Brussels sprouts, along with the pumpkin and sunflower seeds as well as the dry cranberries.
Make the vinaigrette or sauce however you want to call it, by mixing well all the vinaigrette ingredients in a separate little bowl.
Pour the vinaigrette/sauce over the dry ingredients in the bigger bowl, season well with tiny little salt n’ pepper (remember the bacon is also pretty salty) and mix until all ingredients are well coated with the vinaigrette.
Sprinkle the sesame seeds over and serve on the same day or keep overnight - it will taste even better the next day!
Notes
Few more notes/tips:
Bacon can be readily bought. There is crispy bacon you can just buy in most supermarkets here in the UK. Try and buy a nitrates free one and crisp it yourself.
You can also chop the freshly bought raw bacon into little pieces and fry it. Can even be fried from frozen, it is really easy to chop into perfect little squares.
If you are using pancetta just fry it for 4-5 min on medium-high heat stirring regularly.
the vinaigrette can be substituted for a mustard dressing like this one:
¼ cup of olive oil
2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
2-3 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 teaspoon mustard ( i normally use Dijon or English)
1 clove garlic minced (optional)
Other ingredients you could use/add to this salad:
apples cut into small cubes or thin slices;
shredded or shaved Parmesan cheese;
toasted and chopped pecans or almonds.
Yes, you can :
shred the brussels sprouts up to 2 days in advance but these need to be kept in an airtight container or a zip bag refrigerated until ready to congregate the salad.
prepare the dressing up to four days in advance and kept in a jar with a lid refrigerated until ready to use. Just give it a good whisk before using.