Shaved Brussels Salad with Avocado & Kumquats

Shaved Brussels Salad with Avocado, Kumquats & Anchovy Dressing from http://meatified.com | This shaved brussels salad is like slaw, only better! It's crunchy, vibrant & a great way to get some extra greens, tossed with a punchy, zingy dressing.

This brussels salad came together by accident, really. And it kind of caused an accident, too, but I’ll tell you about that later!

I’ve been a little obsessed with kumquats lately. Cute citrus fruit, really odd name. These olive sized mini orange imposters are like a flavor punch to the face. In a good way. There’s something about their distinct combination of sweet and sour that I just love.

Last week I made my pork belly carnitas and I threw a few slices of kumquats into the mix to top our lettuce cups and guacamole. Because they’re so vibrant and refreshing, they go beautifully with anything fatty, cutting through the creaminess of avocado or the richness of pork belly in a way that keeps your mouth begging for more. I’d whipped up a quick side salad with finely sliced brussels and red onion and the simple combination was something I enjoyed so much, I promised myself I’d make it on purpose next time!

Shaved Brussels Salad with Avocado, Kumquats & Anchovy Dressing from http://meatified.com | This shaved brussels salad is like slaw, only better! It's crunchy, vibrant & a great way to get some extra greens, tossed with a punchy, zingy dressing.

So that was how I came up with this combination of a brussels salad with avocado, red onion and kumquats. When it comes to dressings, I’ll admit I can be a little lazy. If I’m whipping up a side salad for dinner on the fly, I’ll often just opt for a drizzle of olive oil and a little squeeze of fresh lemon, but I wanted something with a little more umami to stand up to the shaved brussels and soften them a little. I remembered an anchovy herb based dressing I whipped up for the Seared Scallops with Cauliflower Leek Purée recipe in Nourish and tinkered with it a little to make it the perfect get-in-my-faaaaace boost of flavor to do battle with the mighty brassicas in this salad.

Now, don’t go freaking out at the words “anchovy dressing”. Because a few flat anchovy fillets in a dressing does not a fishy breath bomb make. They add a lovely savory flavor that balances out the sourness of lemon juice and the slight grassiness of the olive oil, while giving enough umami to bring a little oomph to the fresh mint I added to the mix. These are all good things. Trust.

Shaved Brussels Salad with Avocado, Kumquats & Anchovy Dressing from http://meatified.com | This shaved brussels salad is like slaw, only better! It's crunchy, vibrant & a great way to get some extra greens, tossed with a punchy, zingy dressing.

Now back to that accident I was going to tell you about. Mr Meatified is not a fan of my mandoline and routinely worries that I’m somehow going to cut off my fingers while using it. And I, of course, have spent years rolling my eyes at him because, really, I know what I’m doing. Duh. I reluctantly don the cut resistant gloves he insisted on buying for me, thinking that I don’t really need them. Well, it turns out: I do. Because the ONE TIME I got them out of their drawer and forgot to actually put them on before shaving brussels salad ingredients… yup, that’s the one time I managed to slice right through my nail into the nail bed of my finger. Despite the fact that the aforementioned cut proof gloves were RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. Yeah. Mr Meatified is gonna be so annoyingly smug about this. Once he’s stopped freaking out about me nearly losing a digit, of course.

So, a little public safety alert: if you’re going to use a mandolin, please, pretty please, be careful. Don’t be like me. Because, guess what? Fingers don’t like getting mandolin’d. Nor does my ego. Ouch. These are the cut resistant gloves I now actually use. You know, when I remember them. Sigh.

Shaved Brussels Salad with Avocado, Kumquats & Anchovy Dressing from http://meatified.com | This shaved brussels salad is like slaw, only better! It's crunchy, vibrant & a great way to get some extra greens, tossed with a punchy, zingy dressing.

Anywho. Enough about me. Make this brussels salad. It’s basically a bright, shiny coleslaw with lots of crunch that fools people into eating their greens without realizing it. I’m like the Veggie Whisperer. Or something. You can make the dressing and prep the veggies (sans avocado) well ahead of time and you can even leave the marinated brussels salad in the fridge for a few hours while you either prep other food or just hang out on your porch sipping iced tea. All the acidity and brightness from the dressing helps mellow out the raw onion and the brussels are robust enough to keep their crunch, unlike those soggy lettuce based salads of the past. All you need to do is add your avocado just before serving. Ta da!

Can’t find any kumquats? Never fear! Sometimes they’re just not around or even in season, so try substituting grapefruit segments for a juicy-sour pop of color and brightness, instead.

This recipe was shared in the Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable!

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Shaved Brussels Salad with Avocado, Kumquats & Anchovy Mint Dressing

This shaved brussels salad is like slaw, only better! It’s crunchy, vibrant & a great way to get some extra greens, tossed with a punchy, zingy dressing.

  • Author: Rachael Bryant / Meatified

Ingredients

Scale

For the salad:

  • 1 lb / 454 g brussels sprouts
  • 1/4 of a small red onion
  • 910 kumquats
  • 1 medium avocado

For the dressing

Instructions

SLICE: Trim the brussels stems and discard any loose or dirty outer leaves. Use a mandoline – and cut resistant gloves for safety! –  to CAREFULLY slice the brussels sprouts thinly, about 1 mm thick, then add them to a mixing bowl. Adjust the height of the mandoline blade so that it cuts slightly thinner and finely slice the onion into translucent half moons. Add them to the mixing bowl. Cut the end from the kumquats then use a knife to slice them thinly, using the tip of the knife to work out and discard any seeds. Add the sliced kumquats to the mixing bowl.

EMULSIFY: Combine all the dressing ingredients together. You can either whisk them together in a bowl to combine the oil and lemon juice or be like me and throw everything into a mini food processor to do this for you!

ASSEMBLE: Pour the dressing over the salad ingredients and toss together until everything is evenly coated. Taste and add sea salt, if needed. You can serve this straight away or marinate it for a few hours to mellow out the onions and soften the brussels sprouts a little. Whichever you choose, don’t forget the avocado! Cut the avocado in half, discard the pit and scoop out the avocado flesh, then slice each half finely and add to the salad just before serving.

Shaved Brussels Salad with Avocado, Kumquats & Anchovy Dressing from http://meatified.com | This shaved brussels salad is like slaw, only better! It's crunchy, vibrant & a great way to get some extra greens, tossed with a punchy, zingy dressing.

 

16 comments

  1. Ooh, I can just imagine that combo of flavors – sounds amazing! (No mandolin for me; I have enough trouble with plain ol’ knives!)

  2. I sliced about 1/4″ off my thumb with a mandoline last year and will forever be traumatized by it! My husband sat next to me in the ER and immediately bought those exact gloves on Amazon. Why do we have to learn the hard way? P.S. I don’t know if the little “m” is new but I love him!

    1. Ohmygosh, I’M traumatized just reading that! I haven’t used my mandoline since, to be honest, it kind of skeeves me out a little now!

      The little m… he’s a teeny part of the huge overhaul this place is getting this year! I should have a whole new site sometime around August and I am SO ready for the change! Oh, polka dots, how I really hate you. It’s not me, it’s you… (OK, now I’m talking to a bunch of pixels, I should probably stop this right here, haha).

      1. Haha, don’t worry I’m reading this and I’m not a bunch of pixels! I totally feel you. That’s what I suspected. I’m working on an overhaul of my own! It’s too bad I live so far now. I’d love to get together and talk strategy and non-conformist paleo topics! Though, we are probably snowbirding starting this winter and will be closer again!

        1. Yay, I feel less crazy now. That would totally be fun and I might even un-hermit myself if you’re around these parts later in the year! My introverted game is strong, but you had me at “non-conformist paleo topics”. I quite often feel like a little bit of a paleo black sheep, to be honest!

          1. Haha! I’m betting my hermit game is stronger than yours. I still have zero friends here after 1.5 years! When you mentioned recently how your site would be cooler if you made more sweets, I was totally connecting with you on the black sheep vibe. Personally, I’m in a constant inner battle on whether to conform or be myself (and who even am I?). Haha, getting really existential here. Hence the work-in-progress overhaul. Anyway, I’ll bug you when we’re back in AZ. You can count on it.

          2. You’re not bugging! Imma go FB you now… and thus undermine my introvert points, haha!

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