Sautéed Brussels Sprouts Salad with Quinoa

A simple, hearty salad with crispy, sautéed Brussels sprouts, spinach, and protein-packed quinoa – and costs only $3 to make.

I love salad. Anyone who says they hate salad is usually sitting in front of a small plate of iceberg lettuce, dry carrot shreds, and one sad slice of tomato while waiting for a server to bring out their “real” food.

I believe that salad can be good if there is good stuff in it.

In this case, the star of the show is sautéed Brussels sprouts.

SAUTÉING VS. FRYING

In an early draft of this post, I called them “fried Brussels sprouts” before wondering, “Wait, are these fried or sautéed? What’s the difference?” So, if you’re wondering the same thing, don’t feel bad. I didn’t even know, and I have a food blog.

I looked it up: generally, sautéing uses a little bit of fat, medium-to-high heat, and a shorter amount of time (think vegetables); frying uses more fat, lower heat, and a longer amount of time (think pork chops).

While I browned my Brussels sprouts over relatively low heat for this recipe, I didn’t use much fat – only a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. So I am going to call them “sautéed Brussels sprouts.”

INGREDIENTS

Exact amounts for one large salad are in the recipe at the end of this post.

The ingredients in this salad are secondary to the Brussels sprouts. You can include anything you want. I used what I happened to have on hand the day I made this.

• brussels sprouts
• spinach
• carrots
• mushrooms
• quinoa
• red onion
• olive oil
• garlic

WHY YOU SHOULD LOVE BRUSSELS SPROUTS

As a kid and young adult, I always thought I didn’t like Brussels sprouts. They seemed to be the definitive “gross food” and on everyone’s “most hated vegetables” lists. Maybe I’d only eaten them boiled (ugh) or steamed (ugh) or raw (fine but still slightly ugh). I just knew they were not a vegetable I ever craved.

About 15 years ago, I was at a dinner party prepared by an actual chef, so I felt compelled to taste everything – including the Brussels sprouts, which were browned, almost burnt, slathered in oil and garlic, and so, so good. I will never forget those Brussels sprouts.

I think that most people who think they hate Brussels sprouts have never had them cooked in this way. Trust me, they’re good!

INSTRUCTIONS

Additional instructions are in the recipe at the end of this post.

The key to this salad is sautéing the Brussels sprouts. Everything else is secondary.

I’d recommend having two or three other vegetables to throw in, plus a grain. Feel free to add anything you want: a protein, chick peas, dried cranberries, almonds – salad are so forgiving. You can truly do anything you want.

HOW TO SAUTÉ BRUSSELS SPROUTS

No, you don’t have to sauté them. You can roast them in the oven with a little olive oil and garlic and get a very similar result. I usually prefer to cook them in a pan in order to save time. (Spoiler: I’m lazy.)

People often cut sprouts in half before cooking. Maybe the ones I usually buy are bigger, but after washing them and cutting off the bottom of each sprout, I like to slice mine into thirds.

Some of the leaves will fall off. This is fine. Save them to toss them into the frying pan later.

Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a heated frying pan. As I said earlier, I kept my heat relatively low for this recipe, but you can certainly experiment with a medium to high setting.

Place the sliced Brussels sprouts into the pan one at a time. You can add more olive oil if desired. I’ll usually add a second tablespoon after I turn them over.

I keep the extra leaves and the chopped garlic to the side.

After the sprouts have browned on one side, flip them over and add the extra leaves and garlic to the pan. These will brown quickly, so I like waiting until the sprouts are halfway done before adding them.

It smells so good, I promise!

While they’re cooking, you can get the rest of the salad together. Again, use whatever you want. These days, I’m eating a lot of spinach, but use your preferred leaf and secondary vegetables.

Here’s what I used for this salad.

You do not have to use the same types or same amount of vegetables that I did. This is just to give you an idea of how much I like to add to a salad when it’s a full meal.

I’ve been eating spinach as my salad leaf of choice for a while, but you can use any kind of leaf you like. One thing I love about spinach is its versatility: it’s great both raw in salads and cooked in a stir-fry.

This is a deep bowl and probably not the best choice for a salad shoot. I’m still early in my food blogging days, so please forgive me for not having The Perfect Salad Bowl yet!

Add salt, pepper, and your dressing of choice. I don’t love a lot of dressing, so for this salad I just used whatever oil was in the pan. One of these days, I will have some actual homemade dressings on this blog I can link to. Like I said, I’m new here!

TIPS

This recipe is pretty straightforward, but one tip I will give is about quinoa:

If you’ve never made it before, fear not. Quinoa is super easy: it cooks just like rice and usually takes about 15 minutes. I like to make larger batches and store a container of cooked quinoa in the fridge.

You can substitute it with any other grain, or leave it out completely.

COST BREAKDOWN

Salads are one of the cheapest meal options out there.

Prices of produce will vary depending on where you shop. I live in NYC, so everything costs more here. Still, this salad didn’t cost a lot. Here’s what I paid for just the amounts in the salad:

• brussels sprouts: $0.56
• olive oil: $0.23
• garlic: $0.06
• spinach: $0.75
• carrots: $0.19
• mushrooms: $0.64
• red onion: $0.07
• white quinoa: $0.56

Total cost: $3.06

I hope you enjoy this salad! If you always disliked Brussels sprouts because you never cooked them this way, I’d be curious to know your thoughts! If you make this salad, let me know in the comments.