We’re now officially in the run up to Christmas, and I’m officially in testing mode for great recipes to get me in the festive mood! I’ll be cooking Christmas Dinner back in the UK this year at my mother’s house. So I was thinking about recipes that would make great side dishes. We are big fans of sprouts in my family, so this was a natural choice. If you are looking for something a little bit more impressive than plain old boiled veg this Christmas, try these Roasted Sprouts with Cranberries & Walnuts.
Taste testing this I actually was wondering why I don’t eat spouts at any other time than Christmas. They are in season officially from September to February, yet I only ever cook them in December. They are such a mild vegetable with great texture, perfect as the backdrop for so many different flavours.
I do the standard cutting of a crisscross in the bottom of my sprouts, as that’s how I was taught by my mother and it’s a force of habit now. It does also make sense to me. The bottom woody part of the sprout is so much denser than the rest of the vegetable so surely it needs a little help cooking to keep things even? I have however read that this doesn’t actually make any difference and it’s unnecessary. Do you cut a cross into the base of your sprouts? Do you think it makes any difference? I will have to run an experiment I think to see if it matters or not.
This dish can easily be refrigerated for a couple of days and reheated. Sprouts are actually quite ‘hardy’ and it won’t affect the texture too much. Having said that, freezing sprouts can make them go a bit mushy, so I wouldn’t recommending doing that after cooking. The recipe below serves one as a side dish. Multiply it up as many times as you need if you have guests (or just serve it for yourself, it is pretty easy and simple)
Roasted Sprouts with Cranberries & Walnuts
Course: DinnerCuisine: Side DishDifficulty: Easy1
servings20
minutes30
minutes150
kcalBeautiful garlic roasted sprouts, tossed with cranberries and walnuts for an extra festive flavour to add extra sweetness and crunch!
Ingredients
100g sprouts, outer leaves removed and bottoms crossed
1/2 tsp olive oil
1/2 garlic clove, crushed
10g dried cranberries
10g walnut pieces, roughly chopped
Directions
- Place the cranberries in a bowl of boiling water and set to one side. Preheat the oven to 180C.
- Prepare the sprouts and place on a baking tray. Pour over the olive oil and scatter over the crushed garlic and mix together well with your hands. Place in the middle of the preheated oven. Roast for 20-30 minutes until tender but not burnt.
- Drain the cranberries and add to the baking tray with the walnuts. Toss everything together and then transfer to a serving bowl – easy and yum!
This really filled the house with wonderful smells (which isn’t usually the case when I’m cooking sprouts). I used frozen sprouts (because I forgot I was trying to go classier). Usually, I just boil the heck out of them to the mushy stage and throw them on as a healthy side. But, I followed this recipe, and it really elevated the sprouts. The garlic created wonderful aromas in the kitchen, the cranberries added a bit of contrasting sweetness, and the walnuts improved the texture. Roasting them also helped them be a bit crispier (rather than the mush I’m used to making). We quadrupled the recipe so everyone could try it out in our house.