I Made This Anti-Inflammatory Salad for the First Time This Christmas, and I Can’t Wait to Make It Again

You’ll want to add this simple, tasty salad to your future holiday dinner lineups.

Reviewed by Dietitian Victoria Seaver, M.S., RD

For me, Thanksgiving and Christmas are two very different food holidays. On Thanksgiving, you’ll find me making lengthy grocery lists and checklists to ensure all the casseroles, salads, pies (plus homemade whipped cream) make it to the dinner table. It’s a cooking and baking extravaganza that usually spans a few days, with so many dishes to clean and a beautiful plate of food at the end of it all. I enjoy the whole process, but it is definitely exhausting.

Related: Healthy Holiday & Occasion Recipes

For Christmas, I like to do as little as possible. My ideal Christmas morning involves sleeping in, walking around the neighborhood with my dog and husband, having a leisurely breakfast, opening gifts, watching Christmas movies, playing Scattergories and enjoying a large midafternoon meal.

This year, my husband did the heavy lifting, preparing a delicious standing rib roast that was gorgeously charred on the outside and perfectly medium-rare on the inside, paired with homemade mashed potatoes. I sautéed some spinach and garlic and made EatingWell’s Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad while watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was my first time making that salad and it was a huge hit! Everyone went back for seconds.

To make the salad, I thinly sliced some Brussels sprouts and combined them with finely shredded hard goat cheese, dried cranberries and dry-roasted, unsalted pecans. I often use soft goat cheese in salads and baked into cheesy casseroles, but this was my first time using hard goat cheese. I found it in the cheese cooler, next to the regular soft goat cheese. But if you can’t find hard goat cheese, you can use manchego, Cheddar or Gouda cheese as a substitute. The original recipe calls for dried cherries and pistachios, but I substituted them with ingredients I already had on hand.

Then, I made the dressing using extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, honey, Dijon mustard, apple-cider vinegar, salt and pepper. I put the ingredients in a liquid measuring cup, emulsified the dressing with a fork, then poured the dressing over the salad when it was time to serve.

Related: 18 Easy Salad Dressings Worth Making, Not Buying

The salad beautifully complemented the rest of the meal, adding a nice hit of sweetness, freshness and crunch. It’s a straightforward recipe that’s easy to make, but looks—and tastes—impressive. It’s also a great way to get in some fiber, protein and vitamins A, C and K, nutrients which can help decrease inflammation in the body. What’s more, Brussels sprouts are one of the best foods for gut health, thanks to their fiber content. And some research, like a 2017 study published in Preventive Nutrition and Food Science, suggests raw Brussels sprouts have a higher antioxidant count than cooked sprouts, which is all the more reason to make this delicious salad.

It’s completely normal to eat a little more added sugar and sodium during the holidays—two nutrients that can increase inflammation in the body—so I love that this salad offered those anti-inflammatory ingredients to help me feel my best.

I’m definitely adding it to my regular holiday dinner lineup, and I'll be keeping this recipe in my back pocket for future potlucks and even regular weeknight dinners.

Read the original article on Eating Well.