Bacon and Blue Brussels Sprouts Salad
Such a delicious Brussels sprouts salad made with bacon. This salad features shaved fresh Brussels sprouts, crispy bacon, blue cheese crumbles, and dressed in a warm bacon vinaigrette.
BRUSSELS SPROUTS SALAD
I saw the funniest meme this Saturday night, it was from Cinderella and it said “and at the stroke of midnight, Halloween will turn into Christmas.” That is so true because when we walked into Target the day after Halloween, it was Christmas time overnight.
I don’t know what’s the hurry, I refuse to even think about Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. Remember Thanksgiving? It’s still here. We still need to get together with the whole family (or two in many cases) and stuff ourselves to the brim with turkey, bread, and lot’s of tasty sides. So let’s not jump to Christmas just yet, but talk about Thanksgiving menu planning.
I have many wonderful dishes planned this month including side dishes, desserts, bread, and breakfast. So you will have plenty of options when planning your menu.
Let’s start with this awesome Brussels sprouts salad because it’s crispy, fresh, and packed with so much flavor.
This is a fresh Brussels sprouts salad, so I recommend making it close to the time you will be serving it. If you absolutely set on making it ahead of time, make it the night before but don’t make the dressing until right before serving. If you let this salad sit in the fridge for too long and dressed, it will start to wilt. Bacon dressing will also be partially solidified and not as appetizing.
HOW TO MAKE BRUSSELS SPROUTS SALAD
You can cook bacon right for the salad or make it a day ahead and simply warm it up the next day in a cooking pan, over medium heat.
Cooking Bacon:
Preheat oven to 400°, line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, and place a cookie wire rack inside the baking sheet.
Lay raw bacon strips on the wire rack and bake for 13-20 minutes, depending on the thickness of bacon.
Take out of the oven and set aside. Make sure to save some bacon grease for the dressing.
Making Warm Bacon Vinaigrette:
Preheat a small cooking pan over medium heat and add 2 diced raw bacon strips and sliced shallot. Cook until bacon is crispy and add bacon grease. Stir in walnuts and saute for just a minute or two.
In a small bowl, combine vinegar and sugar and stir in the entire content of the pan. Let it cool for just a few minutes so it’s not scalding hot.
Salad:
Slice Brussels sprouts as thin as you can. You can use a slicer attachment on a food processor if you have one, that might save you a lot of time.
Combine sliced sprouts in a mixing bowl and add blue cheese crumbles and crumbled cooked bacon.
Pour in the warm dressing into the mixing bowl and mix everything together.
MORE RECIPES TO TRY
Green Beans with Onion and Bacon
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Bacon and Blue Brussels Sprouts Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb Brussels sprouts just the heads
- 5 crispy bacon strips save the grease after baking bacon, you will need it for dressing
- 1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles
Warm Bacon Vinaigrette:
- 2 raw bacon strips
- 1 large shallot
- 2 Tbsp bacon grease
- 1/4 cup walnuts
- 1/4 cup sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- Salt
Instructions
Bacon:
- Preheat oven to 400°, line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, and place a cookie wire rack inside the baking sheet.
- Lay raw bacon strips on the wire rack and bake for 13-20 minutes, depending on the thickness of bacon.
- Take out of the oven and set aside. Make sure to save some bacon grease for the dressing.
Salad:
- Slice Brussels sprouts as thin as you can. You can use a slicer attachment on a food processor if you have one, that might save you a lot of time.
- Place sliced Brussels sprouts in a mixing bowl and add blue cheese crumbles.
- Crumble crispy bacon and add it to the bowl as well. Set aside.
Warm Bacon Vinaigrette:
- Preheat a small cooking pan over medium heat.
- Dice 2 raw bacon strips and slice shallot thin.
- Add diced bacon to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Add shallots and continue cooking until bacon is cooked. Add bacon grease.
- Add walnuts and saute for just a minute or two. Season with some salt.
- In a small bowl, combine vinegar and sugar and mix.
- Add the entire content of the pan to the bowl with vinegar and mix well.
- Add dressing to the bowl with Brussels sprouts and mix everything well. Season with some salt and transfer into a serving dish.
Nutrition
All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
A nice salad – thank you and have a great day!