Description

This shaved cauliflower salad with walnuts and pecorino cheese might just become your new favorite salad. Made with thinly shaved cauliflower, celery, parsley, toasted walnuts, salty pecorino cheese, and a perfectly creamy white balsamic dressing. An insanely delicious and hearty vegetarian salad!

Ingredients

Scale

For the dressing

1/4 cup white balsamic (can substitute with white or red wine vinegar – these vinegars are more tart and less sweet than white balsamic, so you may end up wanting to add a little more maple syrup or honey to taste if using)
1/4 cup store bought or homemade avocado oil mayo
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
`1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

For the salad

1 2 lb head of cauliflower, cut into florets and very thinly sliced
4 stalks of celery, very thinly sliced
1/2 cup of parsley, chopped
3/4 cup of walnuts, toasted and chopped
1 cup shaved pecorino (a Y shaped vegetable peeler and then crumbling with your fingers works great for this)
salt and pepper to taste

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Instructions

Mix dressing ingredients. In a small bowl whisk together all of the dressing ingredients, set aside.
Thinly slice celery. Once finished, move to a large bowl.
Cut the head of cauliflower into large florets. Then slice as thinly as possible. Patience is key here! The salad will be much yummier if all of the cauliflower is cut super thin. Add to the bowl with the thinly sliced celery.
Toss walnuts in a small skillet toast. Cook over medium heat until fragrant and starting to brown. Keep a close eye on them as they can easily burn.
Move to a cutting board. Allow to cool slightly before chopping. While waiting to cool chop parsley and shave pecorino cheese.
Chop walnuts. Once walnuts are fairly cool, roughly chop.
Garnish salad. Set a small amount of walnuts, parsley, and pecorino aside to garnish the salad.
Toss. Just before serving toss cauliflower and celery with walnuts, parsley, shaved pecorino, and dressing.
Season to taste. Season with salt and pepper, top with extra walnuts, parsley, pecorino, and serve!

Notes

For the best all around texture, toss the dressing with the cauliflower salad just before serving. Don’t forget to season with salt and pepper to taste! I have however, also eaten the leftovers the next day and the salad does hold up fairly well. The only difference is that the ingredients may soften slightly under the bold and punchy dressing.

To make this salad in advance, simply keep the dressing and walnuts separate from the rest of the salad until ready to toss and serve.

If you have a nut allergy substitute walnuts with toasted pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, or sunflower seeds.

To make this recipe vegan substitute regular mayonnaise with vegan mayonnaise, and leave out the pecorino cheese (or substitute with a vegan cheese).