Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

Unusual combination adds up to flavorful winter salad

Recipe: Bejeweled Brussels sprouts slaw with mandarins

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED DEC 20, 2020

Salad with Brussel sprouts, mandarin oranges and pomegranate arils — How pretty is this slaw? (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

With good-tasting tomatoes in short supply, winter salads need to be creative.

This simple slaw is delicious with a variety of textures, flavors and colors, thanks to an unusual combination of featured ingredients – raw Brussels sprouts, mandarins, pomegranates and raisins.

Adding crunch as well as sweetness, the pomegranate arils (the seed sacs) look like little rubies in this flavorful slaw. If you use bottled dressing, this winter salad goes together in a snap.

Bejeweled Brussels sprouts slaw with mandarins
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup Brussels sprouts (about 12), thinly cut or shaved
3 mandarins, peeled and separated into segments
¼ cup pomegranate arils
¼ cup raisins
2 to 3 tablespoons creamy French dressing (see below)

Instructions:

In a large bowl, combine thinly sliced Brussels sprouts, mandarin segments, pomegranate arils and raisins. Lightly toss to combine.
Add French dressing, lightly toss until ingredients are coated. Serve.

Note: Slaw can be made in advance and chilled, covered, before serving.

Tossing salad — Toss the ingredients lightly in dressing.

For creamy French dressing: Use your favorite bottled creamy French dressing, or make your own.

In a food processor, combine 1-1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon paprika, ½ teaspoon Worchestershire sauce, 1/8 teaspoon seasoning salt and 1/8 teaspoon dry mustard. Pulse once or twice to combine.

In a slow and steady stream, add 3/8 cup (3 ounces) olive oil or salad oil. Process until thickened, about 2 minutes.

Store extra French dressing covered in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

mandarins recipes citrus gardening pomegranate Sacramento backyard produce produce management winter vegetables salad

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Food in My Back Yard Series

April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?

April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)

April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers

April 8: When to plant summer vegetables

April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths

March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth

March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space

March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds

March 4: Potatoes from the garden

Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later

Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space

Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants

Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting

Local News

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Find our spring recipes here!

Thanks to Our Sponsor!

Sites We Like

Garden Checklist for week of April 27

Once the clouds clear, get to work. Spring growth is in high gear.

* Set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, radishes and squash. Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias. Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom. Late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.

* Weed, weed, weed! Don’t let unwanted plants go to seed.

* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.

* Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Start thinning fruit that's formed on apple and stone fruit trees -- you'll get larger fruit at harvest (and avoid limb breakage) if some is thinned now. The UC recommendation is to thin fruit when it is about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Peaches and nectarines should be thinned to about 6 inches apart; smaller fruit such as plums and pluots can be about 4 inches apart. Apricots can be left at 3 inches apart. Apples and pears should be thinned to one fruit per cluster of flowers, 6 to 8 inches apart.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

Find our summer recipes here!

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Find our fall recipes here!

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Find our winter recipes here!