Sprouty Side Dish

People associate sprouts with Christmas but my Dad wants them with every single meal in the winter months. He buys bag upon bag of them, silently depositing them in the fridge as wordless suggestions for me each week. Luckily, I’m a huge fan too and can eat them by the bowlful, even if he shouldn’t; sprouts are high in potassium, which actually interfere with his anti-rejection drugs! Apart from this risk factor, the primary problem with Daddy’s sprout consumption is that he’s a massive traditionalist and turns his nose up at anything other than a pure boiled “farty sprout”. My favourite take on sprouts is definitely the single cream and chopped chestnuts route but I decided to give this recipe a go because I was feeling guilty about a packet of marvellously rooty multi-coloured baby carrots I’d ignored but refused to throw out. It worked nicely as part of a hot buffet but would go really well as a side dish for dinner; try it with something gamey like pheasant or venison.

Ingredients

Around 300-400g of Brussel Sprouts (two big handfuls)

The same amount of baby carrots or 1 large carrot

3-4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon

Olive oil for roasting

Salt and pepper

1 dsp honey

1 dsp wholegrain mustard

1 dsp red wine vinegar

Parsley

Method:

1)      Preheat the oven to 190˚.

2)      Prepare the sprouts by cutting off their bases, peeling until “clean” and then cut them in half.

3)      Scrub the baby carrots; top and tail them before cutting in half if you think they need it. If you’re using one large carrot, peel it before slicing it into rough diagonal chunks.

4)      Deposit the vegetables in a baking tray and drizzle with enough olive oil to coat. Snip over the bacon into 1cm strips and season with salt and pepper.

5)      Roast the vegetables for around 40-50 minutes until crisp and brown around the edges, adding a splash of water to the tin halfway through cooking to soften.

6)      Ten minutes before the end take the vegetables out of the oven and stir in the honey, mustard and vinegar before returning to the oven to finish off. This way the honey won’t burn and will act as more of a glaze.

7)      Dredge with chopped parsley before serving.