When I discover a great dish at a restaurant I have to try to recreate the recipe at home. Susan and I spent the weekend in St. Louis a couple weekends ago at the Moonrise Hotel on the Delmar Loop. While there, we ate at a wonderful restaurant called Nico where Susan ordered their Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad. It was fantastic and she immediately told me that I needed to recreate it. She thinks I came extremely close. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

1 pound Brussels sprouts

½ ounce Maytag Blue Cheese

1 oz dates finely chopped

1 oz sliced almonds

2 tablespoons walnut oil (olive oil may be used)

1 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar

½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Directions

Wash and cut the stems off of the Brussels sprouts and then remove the outer layers of leaves. These tend to be somewhat bitter. Finely slice the Brussels sprouts avoiding the very inner core. You could use a mandolin slicer set to the finest setting but I feel more comfortable using a chef’s knife. Toss into medium sized bowl to separate the layers. Crumple the blue cheese and add it to the bowl along with the chopped dates and almonds. Toss to combine. Wisk together the oil, vinegar, and lemon juice to create a vinaigrette. Drizzle vinaigrette over Brussels sprouts mixture and toss until well mixed. Refrigerate until ready to serve.