by Amy Mccann

Created on: December 20, 2008   Last Updated: August 17, 2010

Brussels Spouts aren't everyone's favourite, however, they are a Christmas must have! A little bit like Marmite, you either love them or you hate them. I'm going to try and sway everyone over to the love camp on these little round vegetables. A traditional Christmas vegetable from the brassica family (which also includes broccoli and cauliflower), they can taste a little bland and cabbage like when just plain boiled. Below are some recipes to make the humble Brussels sprout a little more interesting on the plate. I can guarantee there will not be any left on the big day!

The way in which I make them more appealing and palatable is by boiling them to begin with in the usual way. Remove all the dead outer leaves from the sprouts. Make sure that you put the cross in the stalk with a knife, just to aid the cooking process. The X needs to be cut from the base all the way to the middle of the sprout. Otherwise you can end up with hard, woody stalks. Add a little bit of salt to the boiling water for taste. Simmer the sprouts until they soften. The best way that you can test this is by piercing the stalk with a knife to see how soft they are.

Then place the Brussels sprouts in a wok with a little bit of olive oil or butter, a chopped red onion, and chopped smoked bacon. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook the Brussels sprouts until the onion and the bacon have browned off. You can also stir fry the Brussels sprouts and bacon off, maybe with a dash of sherry, and continue to stir fry for a minute or so to burn off the alcohol. If you fancy it, you can also add pecan nuts into the mix. Brussels sprouts have a nutty flavour which is bought out by the addition of the pecans.

Another option is to fry the Brussels sprouts with butter or olive oil and chopped garlic. You could also stir fry the brussel sprouts with ginger, or for the more adventurous you could even add a chopped red chilli! Red chilli works really well as part of a roast dinner. I often use red chilli in amongst my roasted vegetables. It just gives it a little bit of an edge, making your roast that bit more memorable.

This will make Brussels sprouts an exciting flavour to add to any Christmas dinner! They are a brilliant source of vitamin C and minerals as well as fibre, so if any of these recipes make them more appealing then you really should try them out. And Brussels sprouts really shouldn't be just restricted to Christmas day and I think after you have tried them with one of the above recipes, you will definitely agree.

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