Brussel Sprout and Chestnut Salad
This festive winter salad from Joey O'Hare uses seasonal favourites such as Brussels sprouts and chestnuts.
Get straight to the recipe:
It makes a delicious light lunch or the perfect side salad to accompany any leftover Christmas turkey or ham.
Serves: 4 people as a side or light meal
Time: 15 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking
Ingredients
Before you begin: Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
For the salad:
- 150g buckwheat groats, pre-soaked for 1 hour
- 400g Brussels sprouts
- 60g walnuts, de-shelled
- 60g chestnuts, cooked & peeled
- 6 medjool dates (or 80g sultanas)
- 30ml red wine vinegar
- 30ml water
- 30g fresh parsley
- 2 endive
- pinch sea salt
For the red wine vinaigrette:
- 30ml red wine vinegar
- 30ml extra virgin olive oil
- 10g runny honey
- pinch sea salt
Method
For the red wine vinaigrette:
Simply whisk together all the dressing ingredients, or shake in a sealed jam jar until combined.
For the salad:
- Toast the walnuts and chestnuts in the preheated oven for 8 minutes until smelling nutty and delicious. Once cool, coarsely chop and leave to one side.
- Tip the soaked buckwheat into a sieve and rinse under running water.
- Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Once boiling whisk in the buckwheat and cook gently for 12-14 minutes until tender. If you are using an alternative grain, follow the instructions on the packet.
- Bring a second saucepan of salted water to the boil for the brussels sprouts.
- Trim the base of each sprout and remove any tough or discoloured outer leaves. Blanch the sprouts in the boiling water for 4 minutes.
- Drain the sprouts and once cool enough to handle, quarter the sprouts and allow them to dry out further.
- Drain the buckwheat and spread out on some kitchen paper to dry thoroughly to ensure your salad is light and fluffy.
- Slice the dates, chop the parsley, and part the endive leaves.
- Bring the red wine vinegar and water up to the boil in a small saucepan and thrown in the chopped dates or sultanas; these will swell and pickle almost instantly.
- In a large serving bowl combine the buckwheat, sprouts, toasted nuts, pickled dates/sultanas, parsley, and prepped endive, and toss all the ingredients together gently with the salad dressing.
- Taste for seasoning; if you fancy an additional splash of dressing use the left-over pickling liquid from the dates/sultanas.