Brussels Salad with Crispy Chickpeas

I don’t understand why so many people hate brussels sprouts…obviously if you simply boil them they’re gonna taste farty, but cook them any other way, they become delicious. They’re technically teeny cabbages, and work the same way cabbage do.

My favourite way of eating them are either ‘shaved’ in a salad, or roasted until they start to caramelise and get crispy.

This brussels salad is a ‘take’/heavily inspired by Caesar salad. Obivously the OG salad dressing is incredibly hard to emulate as anchovies, yolks and most importantly parmesan is out of question, but this salad has the elements that a Caesar has: umami, creaminess and crunch.

prep/cooking time: 45 minutes

serves: 4-6 preopl

Ingredients

240g cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 tbsp neutral oil

3/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp garlic granules or dried ground garlic

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

4 tbsp silken tofu

1.5 tsp white wine vinegar

2 tbsp lemon juice

3/4 tsp dijon mustard

1 tsp capers

1 small clove of garlic, peeled

5 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast

500g brussels sprouts, washed and sliced thin

Additional Ingredients (optional)

- dried cranberries

- nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds…)

-protein (crispy tofu, roast chicken, egg..)

Ingredients

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C, and line a baking sheet with foil.

2. Dry your drained and rinsed chickpeas as much as your can and put them onto the baking sheet with the oil and salt. Toss them together with your hands so that all the chickpeas are evely covered. Bake for 45 minutes or until the chickpeas turned golden brown and turn crispy.

3. After baking, remove from the oven and add the garlic granules and smoked paprika. Using utensils, toss the spices and chickpeas around until evenly coated, leave to cool down.

4. In the meantime, add the tofu, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, capers and garlic into a food processor, pulse until everything has broken down into little pieces and the consistency changes to runny. Slowly stream in the olive oil, mixing as it goes to thicken the dressing, finish off by adding the nutritional yeast, mixing until everything has emulsified and the consistency has gotten thicker and creamier. (this recipe makes more dressing than you may need)

5. In a large bowl, add your sliced brussels sprouts, cooled crispy chickpeas and as much dressing as you would like, toss together along with any additional ingredients you may want, and serve!