Shaved Brussels Slaw with Hazelnuts, Apple, and Mint

I got carried away buying mint at the Farmer’s Market and was looking for some new inventive ways to use it (besides homemade mind tea and strawberry-mint margaritas!).  So, I had one of those “what do I have in the fridge that will go with…” moments, and came up with this unique and ridiculously delicious Shaved Brussels Slaw.  It was amazing beside lamb (because mint and lamb are the bomb), but also tasted great with chicken and pork!  It’s delicious enough that you could even turn it into a dinner salad by tossing in some sliced steak or cubed chicken (in which case it would serve more like 3 people).

To make this autoimmune protocol friendly, omit the hazelnuts.  Tiger nuts would give it a similar texture if you like them!  You can add tiger nuts straight out of the bag, or toast (follow the same directions as the hazelnuts but don’t bother trying to rub off skins).

Prep time:  10-20 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes (roasting hazelnuts and browning pancetta at the same time)
Yield:  5-8 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw hazelnuts (or roasted, see Steps 1-3)
• 4 oz pancetta, diced (bacon works as a substitute)
• 2 lbs of Brussels sprouts, shaved (or a 10-12oz bag of shaved Brussels sprouts, see Step 5)
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 lemon (2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice and 1 tsp lemon zest)
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Granny Smith apple, cored and thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup mint chiffonade (see Step 6)

 

1. Toast the hazelnuts (the flavor is so much better when you toast them at home, but you can also skip steps 1-3 by using roasted hazelnuts).  Preheat oven to 375F.  Place hazelnuts on a rimmed baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes.
2. Remove them from the oven and immediately pour into a clean tea towel.  Fold the tea towel over the hazelnuts and let them sit for 1-2 minutes.
3. Now, with the tea towel still covering the hazelnuts, rub the top to start removing the skins (this always reminds me of the original 101 Dalmatians where Roger rubs the towel covering Lucky and saves him, yeah, I know that’s kinda strange).  You can open up the tea towel and see how you’re doing (at this point, the towel is really just to protect your hands from those hot nuts!).  Pick out the hazelnuts that have the skins removed (its fine if there’s a little left on them) and continue until you’ve removed all the skins from the hazelnuts (some of the skins will be stubborn, so don’t worry if it’s not perfect!).  Let cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
4. While the hazelnuts are in the oven, place diced pancetta into a cold skillet and turn on heat to medium.  Saute, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 8 minutes.  Remove pancetta from the pan and set aside to cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients (that’s some tasty grease in your pan!  use it to saute veggies for dinner!).  Don’t have pancetta?  Bacon chopped into small pieces works just as well!
5. Slice Brussels sprouts very thinly, discarding the stem, to make shaved Brussels–this is much easier using a mandoline slicer (careful of your fingers!) or a food processor with a slicer attachment (trim the stem off first).  Two pounds of whole Brussels will give you about 12 oz shaved…  you can also just use a bag of shaved Brussels sprouts to make this extra easy!
6. Finish the rest of the prep work:  zest and juice your lemon (you need 1 tsp of zest and 2 Tbsp of lemon juice), crush your clove of garlic, slice your apple into very thin slices, and chiffonade your mint leaves.  To chiffonade mint, stack several leaves on top of each other and slice very thins strips across the leaf all the way down.  Measure your 1/3 cup after you chiffonade the mint (it will be something like 1 cup of loosely packed leaves before you chiffonade).  Confused about chiffonade?  Go ahead and chop the mint!
7. Now combine all of the ingredients into a bowl and toss to combine!  If you aren’t going to eat all of it immediately, use the hazelnuts as a garnish instead of mixing them in, since they’ll go a bit soft during storage in the fridge.  If you want to make ahead, combine everything except the hazelnuts and then add those at the last minute before serving.  Store leftovers in the fridge for up to 5 days.
8. Enjoy!