I’ll just come right out and say it: This is a David Chang recipe.
Really, all I did was take his genius recipe and fiddle with it a bit. I made the sprouts and the sauce, mostly to his specifications. Then, I made some buckwheat soba noodles according to the package directions. Lastly, I tossed the soba noodles with the sprouts and sauce. It wasn’t rocket science, but it did make for a quick and tasty dinner.
Since I didn’t deviate much from the original recipe, there’s no point in posting it here. If you want to know how to make David Chang’s amazing Brussels Sprouts with Fish Sauce and Mint, just head on over to Food & Wine Magazine. However, I will leave you with a few notes on my adaptation of the recipe.
If you plan on making this Brussels sprout soba salad, here are a few notes:
*First off, this recipe translates nicely into a cold soba salad. In addition to making Chang’s sprouts, you just need to cook up a few buckwheat soba noodles (according to package directions) and toss the sauced sprouts with the noodles. I let the noodles and sprouts cool a bit, and ate the salad at room temp. However, the cold leftovers the next day were even better.
*I found Chang’s recipe to be a litttttttle too fish saucy for my tastes, so I dialed back the fish sauce just a bit and upped the lime juice. I also added thinly sliced green onions to the salad, for kicks.
*The spicy rice crispies are awesome. Don’t skip this step. Make them. Just don’t toss them in/on the salad until you’re ready to serve or they’ll get soggy.
*I didn’t have a red chile on hand, so I substituted a jalapeño from my garden. This was a great idea in theory, but that particular jalapeño was face-meltingly spicy. Thankfully, I didn’t put the whole darn pepper in the sauce (otherwise, it would have been completely inedible).
*The recipe on Food & Wine calls for ‘boiled’ Brussels sprouts, but doesn’t specify any boiling instructions. In my opinion, you really don’t want soggy/overcooked Brussels sprouts! I just blanched mine in boiling water for 2 minutes, then doused the sprouts in an ice bath. This just softens the sprouts and gets them ready for a good charring in the skillet!
And, that’s all I gotta say about this Brussels Sprout Soba Salad! It’s a spicy and simple weeknight meal, full of interesting and unique flavors. Bonus: it tastes even better the next day. Do it!