There is so much to like about the much-maligned Brussels sprouts. They look like baby cabbages. They grow on thick stalks that, when covered with tiny sprouts, look like edible jingle bells. They help us celebrate Christmas and give us something to talk about over the dinner table. Critics of these delightful little fellows point to an overpowering and bitter taste; but that is a telltale sign of a sprout being overcooked.
This week I’m celebrating this brassica with two fantastic recipes that I hope you’ll think about incorporating into your holiday suppers: a sprout salad and teriyaki sprouts.
The sprout salad is inspired by a Brussels sprout, apple and pomegranate salad recipe by Deb Perelman of the fantastic New York-based food blog Smitten Kitchen. Perelman is the queen of triumphant and un-fussy food and some of my all-time favourite recipes are ones I’ve adapted from her blog and made my own.
My version boasts a tahini yogurt dressing. My favourite tahini for making dressing is made by the Lebanon brand Al Nakhil which I find in Middle Eastern or specialist food stores; it’s such a silky consistency which makes it adaptable to lots of uses.
I made a vegan version of the salad for my gluten-free vegan girlfriend with a pure tahini dressing, mixed with a bit of water to make it the correct consistency. I’ve made the salad using dried cranberries and toasted, finely chopped hazelnuts instead of pomegranate and almonds, so don’t be afraid to create your own version.
Advertisement
The salad keeps well for at least a day (I haven’t managed to keep it hanging around for any longer than that!), so it’s definitely a good one to make ahead if you’re feeding a crowd. To keep it fresh, mix in the dressing at the last minute before serving.
This week’s teriyaki sprouts are a seriously tasty way to celebrate Brussels sprouts. Teriyaki sauce contains such ingredients as soy sauce, honey, rice wine, ginger and garlic. The sauce makes them sticky and caramelised, and they become little flavour bombs that demand the palate’s attention. I love eating these with noodles and other stir-fried vegetables, or putting them in a ramen soup, but they’d also be delicious served alongside a roast turkey and ham.
One final little trick is that when we prepare our sprouts, we often find that the outer layer of leaves can be a little bruised. You can discard these when you peel the sprouts, but you can also pop them in a roasting tray with a bit of oil and sea salt and roast them for ten minutes or until crispy. They make a lovely little garnish for roasted meats and vegetables.
It would be remiss of me to conclude my defence of sprouts without mentioning the undesirable and socially unacceptable side effects of having a love affair with sprouts: flatulence. It’s true that sprouts can have a field day on their way to being digested in your gut, resulting in some potentially unfriendly odours.
According to Sarah Castor-Perry writing for The Naked Scientists, a complex sugar called raffinose, which is found in all brassicas including cabbage, kale, and, of course, our friends the sprouts, is difficult for our tummies to break down, meaning the gut has to do extra work to digest.
Advertisement
There’s another reason why sprout flatulence might be particularly odorous. “One thing that all brassicas also have in common is that they are full of sulphur-containing defensive chemicals,” writes Castor-Perry. “They’re there to deter animals from feeding on their leaves, and are also what cause the strong and sometimes bitter flavours of these vegetables that puts some people off eating them at all. And it’s these sulphur-containing chemicals that the bacteria turn into hydrogen sulphide and methyl mercaptan. Added in small amounts to the bulky sugar-fuelled fart gas already being produced, these gases are offenders that can clear a room in seconds.”
The advice around reducing flatulence can range from gradually increasing fibre into your diet to improve digestion, or staying hydrated to reduce constipation. Drinking plenty of water and having a peppermint tea after your meals is often recommended as a good balm for gaseous bodies. Fizzy drinks and ingesting air while you eat — something that tends to happen if you eat quickly — seem to add to the issue, so perhaps watch out for those. This Christmas, try to stay hydrated. Or do what I do and blame it on the dog.
Sprout salad
Serves 6 as a side dish
Ingredients
For the dressing:
1 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp runny honey
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
4 tbsp yoghurt
Half a lemon
2 tbsp water
For the salad:
500g Brussels sprouts
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp flaked almonds
100g pomegranate seeds
1 tsp sumac
Method
Advertisement
1 Make your dressing by mixing together the tahini, honey, rapeseed oil, yoghurt and the juice of half a lemon. Add one or two tablespoons of water until the dressing is a thin and drizzly consistency — this may vary depending on the consistency of your tahini. If the dressing splits at any point, don’t worry, keep mixing it and it will blend together again nicely.
2 Cut the sprouts in half. Remove the root and the outer layer of leaves if bruised or wilted.
3 Use a food processor, a mandolin, or a sharp knife to very finely slice the sprouts.
4 Transfer all of the sliced sprout ribbons to a large mixing bowl.
5 Add half the dressing to the sprouts, and mix really well. Reserve the other half of the dressing to serve on the side. Season the sprout salad generously with salt and pepper.
Advertisement
6 Toast the flaked almonds in a dry frying pan for a few minutes until golden brown.
7 Add the pomegranate seeds and toasted almonds to the salad and mix well.
8 Transfer the salad to a serving bowl or plate. Sprinkle with the sumac and serve the remaining tahini dressing on the side sprinkled with sumac.
Teriyaki sprouts
Serves 2 to 3 as a side dish (easily doubled, cooked in batches)
Ingredients
300g Brussels sprouts
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp teriyaki sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp black sesame seeds
Method
Advertisement
1 Cut the sprouts in half. Remove the root and the outer layer of leaves if bruised or wilted.
2 In a large non-stick frying pan, heat the sesame oil and teriyaki sauce over a high heat.
3 When the oil and sauce are nice and hot, carefully add as many Brussels sprouts — cut side down— to the pan as you can while not overcrowding; this will depend on the size of your frying pan. You want each of the sprouts to make contact with the pan so that they can caramelise evenly. If you are cooking in batches, add a little more sesame oil and teriyaki sauce before cooking each batch.
4 Leave the sprouts for about five minutes, keeping an eye on the pan to make sure the teriyaki sauce isn’t starting to burn or stick. Reduce the heat if it looks like the pan may burn. If you can’t contain your excitement, take a peek at one of the sprouts to see how the caramelisation is going.
5 Use a wooden spoon or spatula to carefully turn over the sprouts and let them cook for another five minutes or so, until they are caramelised on the other side.
6 When cooked and caramelised to your liking, remove the sprouts from the heat and mix through the garlic powder and lime juice. Mix well and taste, adding a bit more lime juice or garlic powder, or another splash of teriyaki sauce on top, if needed.
7 Transfer to a serving bowl and serve sprinkled with the black (or regular) sesame seeds.
