I was at the supermarket a few days ago thinking of what to serve a chicken roast with for dinner other than the usual roasted vegetables and mashed potatoes. Good timing that the guy in charge of filling the vegetable section came with a tray full of Brussels sprouts. I have cooked them only once before … steamed them and truth be known, didn’t make much impact on my taste buds then. I got challenged suddenly. I thought, there must be something I can do with these miniature cabbage-looking vegetables to make them more appealing to my palate. Hmmm… stir-fry? Sounds good to me. Then what to add … nuts, onions and bacon. Yes, bacon! Because honestly, bacon makes every dish more tasty and yummy … my opinion anyway.
I was choosing which nut (macadamia or hazelnut) to add to the stir-fry. I bought a packet each and thought I will decide at home. Anyway, decision was hazelnut with the Brussels sprouts and the macadamias, well they will be macadamia brownies.
The dish turned out really good. I loved the nutty texture of the hazelnuts with the Brussels sprouts. The bacon added lots of flavour to it. Make sure you crack a generous amount of black pepper just before serving this dish. The only thing I will do differently next time I make this is, I would roughly chop the hazelnuts. Apart from that, this was good served with the roast chicken dinner.
Ingredients:
- 12-16 pieces Brussels sprouts
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 3 rashers streaky bacon, rind removed, chopped
- 100 g hazelnuts, roughly chopped
- salt and black pepper, to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 30 g butter
Method:
- Trim the Brussels sprouts and remove any damaged outer leaves. Cut a small cross in the base of any larger sprouts. In a small sauce pan, cook sprouts in salted boiling water for 8 minutes or until just tender. Drain. Keep warm.
- Heat oil and butter in a frying pan or wok. Fry onion and bacon for 2-3 minutes, until onion is soft.
- Add hazelnuts to the bacon mixture and stir-fry for another minute or two.
- Add the sprouts into the wok or pan and toss until sprouts are well coated in the oil and butter.
- Season generously with black pepper and serve at one.