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My husband and four year old LOVE this recipe. I’m making it tonight for about the 10th time. Thanks for sharing.
Jessica
We’re house hunting and I need help.
But first, I’ll tell you about this brussels sprout salad. House lovers, scroll down.
This salad = yumyumyum. I have always loved thinly sliced Brussels sprouts in salads (I slice mine on a mandoline – works like a veggie cutting charm) and I am a sucker for chopped salads with lots of texture, like that Chopped Thai Chicken Salad. We have juicy chicken, toasted walnuts, and shredded Parmesan going on in this bowl with the crunchy greens, plus the most creamy dreamy wonderful dressing ev-er made from fresh orange juice, honey, and sauteed onions. Oy. I superlike it.
Guess what Bjork said when I sent this to work with him? And yes, maybe I do pack his lunches because maybe I have a compulsion to eat every single leftover morsel ever, and he has no idea what’s in the fridge, so what? He said this: THAT SALAD IS REALLY GOOD. And just like that I’m married to a person who likes Brussels sprouts.
Win.
Okay, house time. We went into this process thinking that we were looking for an older, charming house in the city that had character AND lots of newer updates, including a large window-y dream kitchen, was close to parks and shops, and was within price range. And then we somehow ended up with these two as our current leads.
House #1: The Easy Happy Home
This little guy is a very practical house very close to where we currently live, featuring a super open floor plan and totally spotless rooms. It’s in a great school district, close to good friends, and within walking distance from a great park. Not makes-my-heart-pound-adorable, not in our dream city neighborhood, but nice, clean, and comfortable. I really feel like we could move into that house tomorrow and we’d be settled in by dinnertime.
Then it would be Christmas morning and I could stand in the kitchen and look over a breakfast buffet type thing into the living room (open floor plan, yeah?!) and gaze upon my husband and my future pug snuggling by the fireplace, and simultaneously flip pancakes onto my future and hypothetical children’s plates as they sit across the way at the dining room table in all their pajama cuteness. I’m not crazy about the exterior of the house and it doesn’t have a huge zing factor, but… do we even need zing? I don’t know. I can easily imagine us being very happy and comfortable there.
PS. Visualization is how I house shop. I think it’s a girl thing.
House #2: The Charming Fixer-Upper Home
As soon as I saw it from the street, I fell in love. Then I saw the inside – the fireplace in the living room, the hardwood floors, the large master bedroom with lots of big windows, and the original 1940’s kitchen wood cabinetry with lots of detail, and fell in love deeper-ly. But guess what? It’s dirty and old and needs major updating. We would be buying the house with the intention of putting some serious money into renovating it with refinished floors, new paint, and a partial kitchen re-do.
But can I just run with this for another minute? It has absolutely undeniable old charm in things like arched door frames, a curlycue banister, a future playroom cedar attic, and a swinging door from the dining room into the kitchen. EEEP! What?! We had said we weren’t going to do a fixer-upper this time around, but we got completely sucked in by the sweet story-like details of this place. I LOVE the potential that I see when I look at this home.
It’s on a golf course, it’s within walking distance to a popular park on a lake, and it’s in a great city neighborhood with lots of other cute old houses on the block. But wait. Golf course? Is that weird? We can’t decide. It’s like literally we can see the golfers teeing off right in the backyard. But then, the view is great, and we sat on the back porch for a while tonight to test it out and we kinda liked just watching people zip around in their golf carts across the open green. It wasn’t too noisy or anything, other than the occasional ping of the golf ball. Then the police came and kicked us out for being creepers and sitting on a porch that we don’t own. Just kidding, but they probably should have.
Will you tell me what you think? We need some help.
Especially if you’ve done the fixer-upper thing and especially if you have anything to say about the golf course. It was actually really helpful to hear from you when I posted that picture of the house with the small kitchen on Facebook way back when – you talked some sense into me, like don’t buy a kitchen that can only fit one person. Good advice. I need some peeps who can help me set my house-buying emotions straight. Yer cool, guys.
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Chopped Brussels Sprout Salad with Chicken and Walnuts
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
This Chopped Brussels Sprout Salad has chicken, toasted walnuts, and Parmesan with a homemade honey orange dressing. Super yummy!
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked chicken, cubed or shredded
- 4 cups sliced Brussels sprouts (for me it was about 20)
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon butter
- juice of 1 orange
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Prep the salad: Prepare the chicken. Prepare the Brussels sprouts by very thinly slicing them with a mandoline. In a food processor, pulse the walnuts a few times until chopped. Place in a small skillet over medium high heat with no oil or butter and toast until golden brown, stirring or shaking constantly.
- Make the dressing: In the small skillet, saute the butter and onion over medium high heat until the onions are golden brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer the onions to a food processor. Add the orange juice, honey, and olive oil. Puree until smooth and creamy. Season generously with salt and pepper.
- Place the Brussels sprouts in the empty sautéed onion pan and place over high heat. Stir for 1-2 minutes until you can smell them and they turn bright green. Remove from heat. In a large bowl, toss the Brussels sprouts, walnuts, chicken, and Parmesan.
- Toss the dressing and salad together. Serve warm or cold. If you plan to keep leftovers, keep the dressing separate.
Notes
You can also eat this salad with the raw shredded Brussels sprouts – just skip the step of sauteing them. I found that sauteing them slightly just brought out color and flavor and helped the texture soften just slightly.
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: chopped brussels sprouts salad, brussels sprouts salad, chicken and walnut salad
This Chopped Brussels Sprout Salad looks absolutely delicious! I love the combination of chicken and walnuts for added protein and crunch. Can’t wait to try this recipe for a healthy lunch option. Thanks for sharing!
This sale is insanely delicious. The only problem is that it says this recipe makes four servings. It only makes two 🙂
This was amazing! It puts the “egg roll/crack slaw” to shame! My husband and I had to make ourselves stop eating it, it was that good.
Loved this! We ended up adding two oranges for a more orange-y flavor, and it was the perfect post-work out meal. Thanks!
Oh my word! The dressing on this smelled so amazing! I really loved this salad. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
Made this for dinner this week and it was sooo yummy! I featured the recipe on my blog where I write about trying out ideas I find on Pinterest. Check it out! https://iampinderella.wordpress.com/2016/02/04/brussels-sprout-and-chicken-salad/
Glad you liked it, Christine!
Made this salad for dinner tonight. It was seriously yummy 🙂
This recipe looks to DIE for! Do you think it would be strange to exclude the fresh orange juice? I am not a huge fan of orange, but the rest looks fabulous!
Nope – I think it woudl still be great!
You were right, Lindsay, it was fabulous without the orange 🙂 This recipe will be a regular in my household!
Thanks for the feedback Ryan! Always love hearing back from people! 🙂
My husband and four year old LOVE this recipe. I’m making it tonight for about the 10th time. Thanks for sharing.
So glad to hear it Jessica! 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe Lindsay, it has become a weekly dins for us!! It’s delicious!!
Glad to hear it Rachel!
I don’t think there could be more of my favorite foods combined in one salad! You have me craving this delicious dish for breakfast 🙂
Hi there! My name is Jessica, and I run a food blog called Floptimism where, every Saturday, I write a Weekend Wrap-Up post to share all of my favorite internet finds from the past week. I wanted to let you know that I absolutely loved this post — I have a soft spot for chicken salads and brussels sprouts recipes– so much so that I included it in my blog’s Weekend Wrap-Up. I’ve included the link to the post in case you’re interested. Thanks for such a fantastic recipe!
http://www.floptimism.com/2013/09/weekend-wrap-up-highlight-reel.html
Thanks Jessica!
It’s clear you’re smitten with house #2 and it sounds amazing!! I just bought my first home which was a semi-fixer upper (at least the kitchen totally was!)… it took us 5 months to re-do the kitchen and we did it ourselves. It is beautiful, and I absolutely love it because we made it ours. Although you know it will be work, it is sooo worth it when you see the finished product. Besides, the rest of the house sounds sooo amazing! Go with your gut! Good luck in your final decision!
Salted dark chocolate should be on the side. just kidding 😉 Looks yummy
Make a list of wants vs needs. Can you afford to sink all the money into the fixer-upper? No matter how cute it is, if you are house poor you aren’t having any fun.
This salad looks absolutely TO DIE FOR! I love shredded Brussels sprouts in my salads too. Can’t wait until they are in season here in Montana. I will definitely make this!
I loved reading this post because it reminded me of watching House Hunters (which I’ve been doing WAY too much of lately). I think the fixer-upper sounds great! If you live on a golf course at least you’d have someone maintaining your beautiful view for the summer!
I also love thinly-sliced brussels sprouts. My favorite way to eat them is on pizza, but I think this salad looks wonderful!
I have gone for the fixer upper option. Took quite some time but I loooooooooooooooooooove my house now. I never want to leave. Also open floor plans bad idea with very young children and if you are a bit of a hoarder like me=D. Good luck with your choices though. Its exciting. I need a good mandolin.
Ahh exciting that you’re looking for a new place! I live in Minneapolis too, so I am trying to imagine the neighborhoods that you are looking in but a golf course and lake is a pretty common occurance around these parts 🙂 Another thought is that since the majority of the year we can’t even golf here, it might not be too weird
I really like the idea of shaved brussel sprouts! I just got a new mandolin that is beckoning me to take it out of the box!
It’s actually a house on the Como golf course in St. Paul. We go back and forth between looking in Minneapolis and St. Paul!
My vote is the fixer upper but only if you can get it for good price. We just finished a fixed a year go – the first thing we did was have someone clean the windows it really made a big difference. Then we started in cleaning and patching and taking down the ugly lights throughout the house. We had an estimate on carpet but only after we’d painted, Kilz paint – be sure you wait a day between coats – it was great as it got rid of all the old odors in the home. We replaced so much that it felt like we built it from scratch. Septic pumped – well rewired from the house (and the well worked phew) there wasn’t a hot water heater?? or a stand ?? Lots of work it took us 4 months (after all the trash was taken out and off the property) we ended up tearing down the fireplace as it was in a really odd spot. Made some good memories – the lawn had been professionally landscaped you could tell so I just trimmed trees & bushes watered it a lot – replaced sprinkler heads, valves, etc. it is such a beautiful yard now. The home had sat empty for three years and the neighbors were so glad we were making it pretty again. New roof and new paint and it looks fabulous! 2000 sq. ft. beauty! Your young so I say just jump in feet first and go for it. —- we did all the work ourselves except washing the windows lol reroofing and laying new carpet. we did install new flooring in the kitchen and “mud room”. Best of luck and have fun with it.
Six months after we purchased increased appraised value was $77,000.
without seeing photos and based solely on your very detailed descriptions, I would go with the fixer upper. But I also agree with Aimee, check out the hood, if it’s also family friendly in addition to having the sort of home you feel you can drive up to and live in and love for a long time, then it’s definitely the house for you.
have fun!
If you are planning to start a family I would pay more attention to the neighbors and neighborhood of each house. Other young family’s? Do they look well adjusted? You will want a place you will feel good about letting your future kids run down the block w/ neighbor kids. Location, location, location. Dream house is secondary as long as its big enough.
Get your butts into the city so we can hang out more!
And please renovate so I can live vicariously through you. People are right when they say that once the kiddos come along, renovations get put off. Andy and I did a fixer-upper before our current house and loved it… now we can’t imagine that, with all of the little people around… but it was rewarding and challenging. Go for it, I say!
Golf course because everything is taken care of outdoors and every one is always happy on a golf course!! I can’t imagine spending hours fixing up a house probably because that’s just not our thing. Best of luck!
I like the looks of that salad! Thank you, THANK YOU, for telling how many brussels sprouts you used. I hate it when recipes just say “3 cups chopped apples.” Er, yes. So, how many should I buy?
About the golf course, I lived right up against one for two years and it was miserable in the summer. They mow about four times a week in those enormous, rocket engine mowers at 4:30 in the morning! RRRRRRRRRR past the bedroom window, all the way down to the other end of the course, then five minutes later, RRRRRRRRR past the bedroom again. I got no sleep at all for months. Thank god it was only an apartment and I could get out.
Good point!!