Brussels Sprout Bread Salad
You’ll Need:
Apx. 1 lb of Brussels sprouts— Rachel likes Trader Joe’s pre-washed sprouts in a bag because they’re always in decent shape and always available.
1 yellow or orange bell pepper
1 tbs olive oil
Salt
2 cups of good, fresh French or Italian bread, cut into bite-size cubes
6oz of thick-cut bacon, frozen
A handful of your favorite nuts. We used shelled pistachios because we wanted them for our sundaes, but we’ve used both walnuts and pine nuts in the past and both have been really tasty.
For the dressing:
3/4 cup of mayonnaise- Store-bought is fine, we made our own using Julia Child’s Recipe
2-3 leaves of fresh sage, roughly chopped (Fresh sage, when used in excess, makes everything taste like Thanksgiving-flavored mouthwash. This amount may seem scant but, we promise, it’s plenty.)
½ tsp fresh thyme, roughly chopped
¼ tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
¼ cup of cider vinegar
1 clove of garlic, very finely minced
Salt
Black pepper
Serves: 4-6
Start by preheating your oven to about 475. Whisk together the mayonnaise, herbs, and vinegar. Its consistency will be a little bit thicker than buttermilk. Add a healthy pinch of salt, and add black pepper to taste. Since this is going to be providing flavor for a whole bunch of bread (which is not known for its robust flavor), you’ll want to be a little bit heavy handed on salt and pepper. Let that hang out in the fridge, so the flavors come together, while you work on the rest of the ingredients.
Next, trim the very bottoms of the Brussels sprouts. Cut them in half and remove any leaves that aren’t tightly closed around the sprout— most of those will come off anyway when you trim them. Seed and slice the bell pepper into bite-size pieces. The goal is to chop the pieces large enough so you can tell what they are on the plate but not so big that you can’t construct the perfect bite in a single mouthful. Place the Brussels sprouts and bell peppers on a baking sheet, coat lightly with the olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and bake for 15-20 minutes, checking and stirring periodically. You want the sprouts to be golden brown and a little crispy.
It sounds odd, but keeping your bacon in the freezer makes it easiest to slice. Since bacon is mostly fat, it doesn’t freeze rock solid. Instead, it firms up nicely and doesn’t slip around as much, so you can get those perfect uniform pieces without slicing off your fingertips. Cut the bacon into sticks, place in a pan (no need to thaw!), and cook on medium-low heat, stirring often, for 10-15 minutes or until the bacon is uniformly browned and starting to get crispy. Drain the bacon sticks and set aside.
This bread salad is delicious at any temperature; you can prepare everything well in advance and keep it in the fridge, undressed, until you’re ready to go, or serve it with the veggies and bacon piping hot. Whenever you’re ready to serve, add the bread you’ve already cubed to a large bowl with the roasted veggies, the nuts, your bacon croutons, and toss thoroughly with your dressing.
