My New Salad Obsession: Raw Brussel Sprouts

I really like brussel sprouts. I know; they are trendy. Lots of restaurants serve them. About a year ago, I ordered a side at Mesa Grill. A few weeks ago, I ordered them at Westville. (I recommend ordering every vegetable at Westville.) I regularly roast them--usually with a bit of olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper, but sometimes I make a honey-soy marinade.

Here's the thing about brussel sprouts and me. My love for them and their trendiness just happened to coincide. I first sampled brussel spouts sometime in college. I used to spend Yom Kippur with my friend Shari's family, and one year, her mom made brussel sprouts for the pre-fast meal. Wow! They were amazing. These little balls of cabbage. Who knew! Despite this revelation, I didn't cook them myself until a year or two ago when roasted brussels began to regularly make their way into my vegetable side rotation.

(A little background about vegetables and me: Growing up, there was always a vegetable served with dinner.  My mother almost always served a salad, and often there was a another vegetable side. I always opted for the salad--especially because more often than not, there was Good Seasons Italian Dressing on the side. I liked my vegetables raw. Carrots, celery, broccoli--they were all good as long as they were uncooked. Seth tells me that my youthful preference for raw vegetables is not normal. Apparently, most children prefer cooked over raw vegetables. I don't know if Seth is correct in his assertion, but I'll tell you this, it is not coincidental that for the past several years I have eated salad for my lunchtime meal.

I left for college still preferring my vegetables raw, but all of a sudden, my taste buds grew up. It probably started with steamed or sauteed broccoli and has progressed to nearly all vegetables (sans beets and most mushrooms) cooked in every imaginable way. Sometime after moving in with Seth five (!) years ago, I got on the roasting bandwagon. And more often then not, a cooked vegetable meant a roasted vegetable.)

Back to the brussels. As much as I love brussels, I started to tire of them. A salad of roasted veggies, lettuce, feta and balsamic no longer had the same appeal for me. And then I discovered the raw brussel. I had seen salads made of brussel "slaw" on food blogs, but still somewhat in fear of my Cuisinart, the idea of taking out the grating attachment seemed like too much work. Over Passover, my friend Anna served a brussel salad with grapes and hazelnuts. Yum! I asked her how she prepped the brussels, and it turns out, she just sliced them by hand. Why, I could do that! So, I did, and the rest is history. For the last two weeks, I've eaten a variety of brussel slaws and other raw greens with brussels mixed in. Lemon juice is my go-to topper, but I may experiment with apple cider vinegar this week.

Some of my recent raw brussel salads:

• Brussels, broccoli, craisins, chopped dried apricots, chopped almonds, guacamole, lemon juice;
• Kale, brussels, grapefruit, mandarins, feta, lemon juice;
• Kale or romaine, brussels, chopped dried figs, craisins, walnuts.

More salads and photos coming soon!

I forgot to take photos of my really good lunch salad

I had a really good salad for lunch. Avocados were on sale at the grocery store, I had broccoli that needed to be used, and at some point over the weekend, a link to this recipe was posted on one of the food blogs I read. (I wish I knew which blog, but thanks to my Pulse app, all the food blogs I read run together.)

I switched up the recipe a bit. I used a lot of broccoli, one avocado and almonds for crunch, but I also threw in snap peas, carrots and a can of tuna that stretched the salad into three servings. The dressing was Gulden's mustard, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder and sea salt. Really good. I considered taking pictures, but the bowl looked messy and I had an inauguration to watch. Next time. Since there will definitely be a next time.

Also, I might do some baking today. Since there is no work and an inauguration and it is MLK day. And I am listening to '90s Pandora. I LOVE '90s music. While there are many artists of the aughts whom I greatly enjoy, there is something about '90s music that really appeals to me. One might think I am nostalgic for the '90s--my bat mitzvah, high school, Steve Madden, but in fact, I much prefer the aughts.

I've spent the aughts in New York City. I graduated from college here, joined the workforce, paid rent (and more rent and more rent), got married. . . became an adult. And I think I am doing okay at it. Which brings me to Girls. I just started season one, and I agree with the hype. Lena Dunham is brilliant. To be so successful at 26. Amazing. Much of the show feels realistic. Hannah's relationship with Adam, as much as it is so wrong, seems real (at least through episode five, which is where I am). The apartment where Jessa babysits looks remarkably like an apartment in which I used to babysit. I don't think Marni would choose to live in Greenpoint. She seems like a Manhattan gal. I see her in Murray Hill in a luxury building in a one bedroom apartment with a bunch of fake walls. And Shoshana is real.

What is not real is how Hannah behaves on job interviews and at work. The rape joke at the job interview. Really? And propositioning your boss? I know the show is meant to exaggerate real life, but the Hannah character is too smart to be so stupid at work. Also, it isn't that hard to have a Mac at home and a PC a the office or vice versa. I transitioned back and forth at my first job. No manual required. (Full disclosure: I would not describe myself as computer savvy.)

I have about half the season to go, which at this rate, I will finish tonight (so wrong and yet so right), so I am hoping that Hannah figures this work thing out. I can sympathize with the boy thing, but my mind is boggled by her inability to succeed at work.

Last but not least, I am so pleased that Tasti D Lite made a cameo on the show. I don't know if it was an homage to SATC and all of the Tasti D consumed on that show, but in a city of Pinkberry, 16 Handles, Red Mango, etc., I am glad that Tasti D is still relevant.

On secret salad dressing ingredients and food processors

Happy 2013!

I made a variety of truffles to ring in the new year. From left to right, cookie dough truffles, peanut butter balls (also known as buckeyes), cake batter truffles and white chocolate peanut butter balls (white chocolate buckeyes?). (Sorry, no recipe for the cookie dough truffles because I can't remember what recipe I used!). I think they are very pretty. By the way, they are nestled in black and white polka dot mini-cupcake liners. So festive and classy! My favorite was the cake batter, but the white chocolate peanut butter balls were pretty amazing, too!

My mom bakes a lot. When I was in elementary school, she often made peanut butter balls or peanut butter bars (similar to the balls, just with one layer of peanut butter and then one layer of chocolate). She rarely makes those recipes anymore. . . maybe because my dad isn't such a fan of the pb-chocolate mixture, while my brothers, who no longer live with her, are. Peanut butter balls are for winners, and I wouldn't mind them becoming a freezer staple in my house.

On to salad dressing secret ingredients. Okay, not so secret but new to me, but I love adding a pinch of sugar to my salad dressings. When I am making salads for Seth and me, I tend to leave out the fat. Seth and I like the tart taste of vinegar, and I have concocted a wide range of dressings using balsamic, apple cider and rice wine vinegar. But, a pinch of sugar (maybe 1/4 to 1/8 a teaspoon) takes the dressing to a new level, cutting the tartness just a bit. 

Today, I had an unremarkable but tasty salad for lunch with a remarkable, easy and low-calorie dressing.

I hadn't planned on posting this salad, so I didn't even attempt to eyeball measurements. (Is that an oxymoron? To eyeball measurements?) I'll try my best to guesstimate. 

In the salad:

• 1/3 head of romaine
• 1 carrot
• 1 stem from a head of broccoli
• 1/4 can of black beans
• 1 Dr. Praeger's veggie burger

In the dressing:

• 2-3 pours of apple cider vinegar
• generous squirt of sriracha 
• a few shakes of granulated garlic
• a few shakes of onion powder
• pinch of sugar
• pinch of salt

Directions:

Chop and toss romaine, carrot, broccoli stem and black beans. Add dressing ingredients, toss. Microwave veggie burger and toss in. 

After lunch, I was craving one of the leftover cookie dough truffles (they keep well in the freezer) for dessert but knowing Seth and I will likely have a few for dessert tonight, I wanted something a little healthier. I decide to make this cookie dough dip. I made it once before using either my mini-food processor from college or the immersion blender (which is really more of Seth's kitchen tool). The dip was good, but not quite the texture I wanted. Given that we have been married nearly two and a half years and have had a beautiful 10-cup food processor off our registry even longer, I decided to take it out for a spin. I've used it a few times before, but unlike my stand mixer, it isn't in my regular kitchen appliance rotation. And wow, it is amazing. The cookie dough dip is so smooth that even Seth who gets nervous around chickpea-based desserts sampled it (only because he couldn't identify what it was, but that means the dip came out really smooth).

The food processor worked like magic, and I want to use it again. I just need a tutorial (why are there so many blades?) and some food processor friendly recipes.

I'm going to dig into the cookie dough dip now!