There’s a first for everything – including this blog post.

Growing up, I ate pretty much anything — except for Brussels Sprouts. They always got a bad rep in movies and shows, so naturally I assumed that they were gross. However, my mom recently started to cook with them and I realized they are nothing but a tiny cabbage, and I looooovvvve cabbage (especially with Chow Chow on top, IYKYK).

Brussels Sprouts are often roasted in the oven, but I wanted to spruce up the ingredient and make a more exciting recipe — a warm Brussels Sprout Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette. This salad is super simple to make with 7 ingredients, not including salt and pepper.

You can pair this simple side with any protein of your choice to make it a meal, but I recommend chicken. If you are a vegetarian, you can make the small tweak of removing the bacon from the recipe and pairing it with some sort of starch. The salad is very light and really needs another element to add substance to a meal.

If you happen to try out the recipe, let me know the results. Send a photo of the recipe via Instagram @sobremesa.am. I can’t wait to hear ya’lls feedback. Feel free to comment or message the page with any questions.

Ingredients

• Handful of Fresh Brussels Sprouts (approximately 20)
• 1/2 cup Red Wine Vinegar
• 2 tbs. Olive Oil
• 3 tbs. Granulated Sugar
• 1 tbs. Honey
• 4 slices of Bacon
• 2 tbs. of Mustard (Dijon Mustard is also fine)

Directions

1. Chop your Brussels Sprouts by cutting off the white bottom of each, cutting in half vertically, and cutting into smaller shred-like pieces (see recipe photo).
2. Slice the bacon into bite sized pieces by cutting in a horizontal direction.
3. Heat a pan on medium heat, add bacon and cook until crispy. Remove bacon to drain but keep enough bacon fat in the pan to cover the bottom.
4. Add the Brussels Sprouts into the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes, just enough for them to get warm. (Cook them longer for softer texture, shorter for more crunch)
5. Mix the vinegar, oil, sugar, honey, and mustard in a bowl and add half to the pan of Brussels Sprouts (add more as desired). Add the bacon back to the pan, cook for 2-3 more minutes so that the sprouts can absorb the vinaigrette. Salt and pepper to taste (bacon fat has a good bit of salt).