Another Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad. This one from Jessica Koslow (Sqirl, Los Angeles). It features two ingredients (sprouts and pears), each presented two ways. According to Koslow in a quote from her cookbook Everything I Want to Eat, “A lot of chefs use the great trick of highlighting an ingredient by using it in two different ways within the same dish.”
That’s a true statement. “If you’re making a beet salad, you could emulsify some of the cooked beets and use them in the dressing.” Another Jessica Koslow truism and it’s exactly how she gets more pears into this dish. Raw, thinly sliced pears served with pears caramelized in butter then whirled and emulsified into a vinaigrette. Simply delicious!
However, it’s the combination of warm buttery-browned sprouts and raw nutty-crisp sprouts that makes this way more than just another Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad. GREG
Shaved and Pan-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Roasted Pears
Print This Recipe Yield 6Source Jessica KoslowPublished“Warren pears are super sweet and have a velvety, grit-free texture like butter that gives this dressing great body. If you can’t find any, use red d’Anjou.” Jessica Koslow
Ingredients
- 2–3 Warren pears (1 pound 5 oz. or 600 g. total)
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter (85 g.)
- 2 tablespoon champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon honey
- fine sea salt
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 ½ pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed (just over 1.1 kg.)
- 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
- 3/4 cup pomegranate arils (130 g.)
- ⅓ cup toasted chopped hazelnuts (45 g.)
- ¼ cup lightly packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped, plus more for garnish (13 g.)
- ½ lemon
Directions
Cut the pears lengthwise into quarters, scoop out the cores, and trim off the stems.
Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a wide pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 pear (4 quarters), cut sides down, to the pan and cook until lightly caramelized, about 2 minutes. Rotate and caramelize the other cut sides for another 1 to 2 minutes, until tender but not mushy.
Transfer to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add the champagne vinegar, honey, and ½ teaspoon salt. Blend until completely pureed. Then, with the motor running, slowly drizzle in the oil and continue blending until the dressing is emulsified.
Cut 1 lbs. (455 g.) of the Brussels sprouts in half. Doing so will cause some of the outermost leaves to fall off. Keep the loose leaves in a little pile on your cutting board.
Return the pan to the stove and heat over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons (60 g.) butter. As soon as the foam subsides, add the cut Brussels to the pan, arranging each one cut side down. (I know this seems like a pain, but it will ensure that the sprouts cook evenly.) Cook, without stirring the sprouts, for 2 to 3 minutes. Flip, season evenly with ½ teaspoon salt, and cook the rounded sides for another 2 minutes.
Add the reserved outer leaves and the sherry vinegar, and shake the pan to distribute. Cook for 10 more seconds, just to wilt the leaves, then transfer to a plate.
Shave the remaining raw Brussels sprouts thinly on a mandoline. (Fingers, be careful!) This takes forever with a knife, but a food processor fitted with a slicing/shredding blade would also work. Toss the shaved sprouts into a large bowl. Add the pomegranate seeds, hazelnuts, parsley, about three-quarters of the dressing, and ½ teaspoon salt.
Toss to coat everything well. Taste, adding a bit more salt or dressing to the plate if you want. Thinly slice the remaining pear quarters. Serve the salad with the pan-roasted Brussels and the sliced pears tucked in. Finish with a big squeeze of lemon juice, and a handful of parsley on top.
Your sprout and pear salad looks like a still life painting…just beautifully presented.
I’ve never roasted pears! Terrific idea, and I love pairing them with Brussels sprouts. This looks excellent — thanks.
What a beautiful salad! Love the raw-cooked pairing of the same ingredients. This is the salad I have been craving but didn’t know how to put together in my head.
This salad looks divine. I must make it soon. Presenting the same food in different ways is genius.
This salad looks divine. I must make it soon. Preparing the same food in different ways is genius.
I don’t have this book, but now I want it. This sounds fabulous!
Gorgeous salad! And I know what she means. I like my prosciutto wrapped pork tendering that has been stuffed with ham. More is better, I always say.
Love Squirl! First place I went to went I moved back to LA. Book is great too.
I love everything about this salad, particularly the photographs! Bookmarking for the summer.