I had a little bit of beef left from a joint and wasn’t sure what to make with it. Decided on topping a couple of jacket potatoes with it, with caramelised onion and mushroom, seasoned with soy sauce. Which just left what to have with it

How To Make Sprout Salad

We had Brussel sprouts in the fridge, but I really didn’t fancy having them cooked with the baked potatoes. So decided to shred them. Carrots were next, sliced on the slicer part of the box grater rather than grating them. No particular reason, just fancied something different

Next up was a handful of dried cranberries to give a sweet and sour pop to the salad. And a handful of crushed walnuts was added to give a nutty crunch and to add some Omega 3 to this vegan Brussel sprout salad.

Raw Brussel Sprout Salad Dressing

So what to dress it with? Decided on a standard vinaigrette, but with the addition of a blob of cranberry sauce. Really pleased with that. Drizzled a little over the salad and it brought it all together. Didn’t need much dressing on this

Lovely little salad this, using seasonal Brussel sprouts and walnuts, and, at the time of writing, a bit of Christmas flavour. The sprout salad would work well all through their season of October to March.

What other flavours would work?

Outside of the festive period, if you don’t want the Christmas flavour of cranberries, change up the seasonings. Use a little soy sauce instead of the cranberries, and raisins in the salad; or orange / lemon zest in both the salad and dressing; or a little pomegranate molasses for a delicious tang

Swap the nuts for chestnuts, almonds, cashews or value salted peanuts, whatever you have. Add a fine sliced spring onion or red onion crescents. Use savoy cabbage, red cabbage or white cabbage, finely shredded, instead of the sprouts

Swap out the cranberries for any other dried fruit – mango strips, dried pears or currants

Other combinations to try include

• finely shredded red cabbage, almonds, orange zest and a pomegranate molasses dressing
• finely shredded white cabbage, cashews, raisins and a lemon zest dressing
• finely shredded dark greens, hazelnuts, strips of dried pear and a dressing with a little muscovado added

None of the salads here want drowning in salad dressing. Too much would hide the lovely fresh flavour. Just use about a tablespoon for 2 servings and toss the salad gently to distribute it.