Brussel sprouts with bacon & chestnuts
- Prep: 20m
- Cook: 20m
- Serves: 4
A classic Christmas combination – and it counts as two of your 5-a-day!
Method
- Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, then tip in trimmed Brussels sprouts. Once back to the boil, cook for 5 mins. Drain, run under the cold tap until cold, then drain again. Set aside.
- Heat a large frying pan, add lardons and gently fry for 10 mins until golden brown.
- Roughly chop the chestnuts and add them to the pan, cooking for 5 minutes until tinged with colour. Remove lardons and chestnuts from pan and set aside to keep warm.
- Add Brussels back to the pan with a splash of water, and finish cooking over a medium heat, until just tender – about 5 minutes. Turn heat to high, add butter and sauté for 2 minutes.
- Transfer to a warmed serving dish with lardons and chestnuts, seasoned generously with salt & pepper.
If you want to prepare in advance – up to two days ahead, par-boil the sprouts, drain and cool, then chill in the fridge. You can also fry the bacon and chestnuts two days ahead, then chill. On the day, just finish cooking the sprouts and assemble the dish. Use streaky bacon instead of lardons, if you wish.
Recipe: Helen Browning's
Ingredients
All to be sourced organic where possible
- 1kg Brussels sprouts (outer leaves removed)
- 200g Helen Browning’s organic bacon lardons
- 200g vacuum-packed chestnuts
- 50g butter