I think that the humble Brussels sprout has a really bad and undeserved reputation. Yes I do know people who loathe them, or who are not enthusiastic about brassicas in general. Brassicas have a natural bitterness, which is an acquired taste for children. In general children prefer sweeter flavours. Even some adults I know are not 100% enthusiastic about the humble sprout. I have a bit of a conflict in my family. At Christmas time, most of my relatives believe that the best (indeed the only) way to cook sprouts is to boil them. I am unable to host Christmas lunch, so boiled it is every year! That would be fine except that no-one seems to be terribly enthusiastic about the sprouts; it seems to be a ritual at Christmas that we must eat boiled sprouts.
Amongst my friends on facebook, there is a running joke about the length of time sprouts have to be boiled for. Quite soon I am sure there will be advice going out to get your sprouts on in time for Christmas 2018! Joking apart, I do remember many years ago my aunt visiting some relatives in Northern Ireland. Before they went off to church, the two sisters put some cabbage onto the stove to cook!
Anyway, enough of this negativity. I love sprouts, but I’d prefer not to have them boiled. In fact, as far as I am concerned you can keep them away from water entirely. I also see no reason why they should just be for Christmas. One Boxing Day I did cook a selection of sprout dishes as a first course.
I made some sprout bhajis, using a recipe for onion bhajis made with gram flour.
These were excellent, and I’d have no hesitation about serving them as the first course to an Indian meal, served with a mango raita. I also cooked sprouts with chestnuts, simply stir-frying them in a little butter and oil. When stir-frying sprouts I always slice them first.
My other dish was sprouts stir-fried with chilli, ginger, garlic and soy. Adding spice to sprouts offsets the bitterness, so is definitely a positive for me. The smell of sprouts is always better too if no water is involved. Boiling cabbage, boiling sprouts… just does not do it for me!
For meat eaters, the other great addition to a dish of sprouts is of course bacon. Again, the sweetness offsets the bitterness of sprouts perfectly.
I also love soup, and brussels sprout soup works really well.
This soup was made with potatoes, onions, sprouts, chestnuts and vegetable stock. I made a crunchy topping of stir-fried sprouts with chilli, ginger and soy. Usually I make chunky soups, but this time I decided to more or less puree the soup with my stick blender, and have the interest of the topping.
Sprouts and cheese also go really well, and there are many recipes for sprouts in cheese sauce, or sprout and macaroni cheese. In fact, I think you can safely cook anything which sprouts which you might do with cabbage. Bubble and squeak made with sprouts is perfect. I also made a dish of roasted savoy cabbage wedges and halved sprouts, finished off with a cheese sauce. This works well in smaller quantities as a side dish, or as a main dish in itself. I would serve it with jacket potatoes in that case.
If anyone has any exciting sprout recipes, please feel free to add them in the comments! I look forward to hearing your ideas.