Great summer salads - volume 1

It seems that summer has arrived in Southern Ontario in full force. Spring rolled over and gave up a couple of weeks ago already. So now it's time for recipes that beat the heat.

I subscribe to Taste of Home magazine. The recent issue has a recipe for a Pickled Veggie Salad that looked interesting. Not sure why, since I'm not a huge fan of Brussels sprouts and I dislike mushrooms. But I had a baby shower to go to this weekend and wanted to bring something different. This salad sure fit the bill. I've had a couple of requests for the recipe already. So I'm going to share my take on it here.

Pickled Vegetable Salad

1lb fresh Brussels sprouts
1 cup sugar (I'd use 3/4 cup next time)
3/4 cup vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
1/2 lb sliced mushrooms
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp plus 1/4 cup oil, divided (I used grapeseed)
1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained and cut into halves or quarters
2 cans black olives, drained (or a mix of black and green olives)
2 plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped (I used about a pint of halved cherry tomatoes)
1 jar roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Cut an 'x' in the core of each Brussels sprout. Place in 1/2" of water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook for about 8 minutes, until tender. Drain and let cool.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan combine the sugar and vinegar (I'll add a dried chili or two at this point when I make it again). Bring to a boil and dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

In a large skillet heat 1 Tbsp of oil and saute the mushrooms, onion and garlic until just tender. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the water chestnuts, olives, tomatoes, peppers and lemon juice. Cut the sprouts into halves or quarters and add to the bowl. Pour the sugar and vinegar mixture over it all and toss with the remaining oil (not sure I added it... hmmm).

Cover and refrigerate at least overnight.

Notes - I drained it and added a generous splash of fresh vinegar before bringing it to the shower. It gave the salad a bit more kick.

The next time I will omit the mushrooms and maybe try some asparagus in place of - or along with the Brussels sprouts.