Holiday Brussel Sprouts

If I had a dollar for every time someone told me they didn’t like a certain type of vegetable, I’d be writing this to you from a mountain side resort, with no end in sight of returning to the societal norms of life.

I really and truly feel that if you have developed a limiting belief in “not liking” something, especially a vegetable…you just haven’t had it presented in a way that is acceptable to your palate yet.  Sometimes that means changing the flavor, the texture, consistency or even camouflaging it.  I’m up for the challenge of anyone who wants to present me with a food they have hated thus far, and creating a version that you can enjoy!

Some might say, why bother.  Just move on to something else you do like. 

My response to that is….if you can find a way to enjoy something with a high nutritional value that previously you couldn’t stand…why wouldn’t you?  Success and sustainability of a plant heavy plate is very dependent on variety.  Eating many different types of edible plants, in all colors of the rainbow every day is vital to your wellness.  Strive to include at least 15 different plants every day.  I promise it’s not as hard as you think!  This recipe alone as at least 9 different plants, with the potential for more!

While there are a couple steps to creating this dish, they are all pretty straight forward and fast.  To increase your success with any recipe, make it a habit to read the entire recipe first as well as gather all ingredients needed before you begin. 

I also love the idea of creating a peaceful working space.  Clear other clutter from your counters.  Light a candle, listen to a podcast, or put some music on.  Whatever helps you find you chill and calm, create that vibe when in your kitchen.

As mentioned elsewhere in this blog, the energy you put into the food you create is transferred into your body once it’s consumed.  Be mindful of what you want to feel like when enjoying your food!

Holiday Brussel Sprouts

Print Recipe

Adding beauty, festive deliciousness and nourishment to your holiday plate!

Course Side Dish

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Servings 6

Equipment

• Spiralizer You can use a vegetable peeler but the spiralizer provides the best result.

Ingredients

For the Sauté

• 1 TBS Olive oil
• 1/2 Cup Bella or button mushrooms, sliced
• 1/4 Jalapeno, deseeded and finely minced
• 1 TBS Tamari

For The Brussel Sprouts

• 12 Brussel sprouts, trimmed, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 TBS Nutritional yeast (see notes)
• 1 tsp Olive oil
• Dash of Sea Salt
• Dash of Black Pepper

Remaining Ingredients

• 5 Rainbow swiss chard leaves, destemmed and chopped or torn into bite size pieces
• 1/3 Cup Pomegranate berries (see notes)
• 1/4 Cup Pepitas, toasted
• 1 Small small zucchini, spiralized (see notes)

For The Dressing

• 1/4 Cup Hummus (see notes)
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 TBS Pure maple syrup
• 2 TBS Lemon juice, fresh squeezed
• 1/4 tsp Granulated garlic powder
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Black pepper
• Water, as needed to thin

Instructions

• For the sauté: Over low/medium heat, warm the olive oil in a medium size pan.  Add the mushrooms and jalapeno. Cover and cook for 5-8 minutes.  Stir and leave lid off to allow water from mushrooms to evaporate. Once the mushrooms start to slightly stick, add the tamari to deglaze, stirring to evenly coat. Allow to cook another minute or so and then remove from heat and set aside.
• For the Brussel sprouts: Turn the oven broiler on high.  Mix the sprouts, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and olive oil until well combined.  Place in an 8×8 or similar size oven safe dish.  Place under the broiler and cook for 5 minutes.  Remove, stir, and place back under the broiler.  Cook for another 5 minutes and continue this cooking and stirring until a char starts to develop on the sprouts.  After you have seen the char develop and have stirred and replaced at least once, turn broiler off, remove the sprouts from the oven, and set aside.
  
• For the remaining ingredients: Pepitas should be toasted by placing in a dry pan over medium heat. Watch carefully and toss in pan to evenly toast.  This will happen quickly so don’t leave unattended as it will burn fast. Once they start becoming fragrant, they are done.

  The chard, pomegranate, pepitas, and zucchini can all be placed in a large bowl, big enough to mix everything together. (If you are unsure how to deseed a pomegranate or what it means to spiralize, see the notes section below).
  
• For the dressing: You have a couple of options for the hummus.  Your favorite store bought is perfectly acceptable and most any variety will compliment this dish.  Personally I prefer olive tapenade or spinach artichoke varieties. You could also use a homemade version of you liking! If you have the time and are up for this extra step, I’d recommend it.

  Whisk all dressing ingredients, except the water.  Add water as needed to thin the dressing to desired consistency. If should be creamy but not watery.
• Assemble: In the large bowl with the zucchini, add the Brussel sprouts, mushroom sauté and dressing. Toss to evenly coat. 

  That’s it!  It’s that easy!  I would recommend enjoying this dish as fresh as possible, but you can keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.  Any longer than that and the veggies will start to muddle with the dressing and effect the texture and overall experience.
  

Notes

• For spiralizing, you can check out the images in the White Bean Artichoke Recipe for a visual on how it should look. Spiralizing makes a huge difference in the mouth feel and enjoyment of many vegetables and I feel this is especially true for zucchini.  Get my favorite spiralizer here!
• If you’ve never taken a pomegranate apart, now is the time! It is not nearly as intimidating as you think, and the simplicity of it can be seen in my IG reel here.
• Nutritional Yeast in a staple ingredient in most planted based kitchens. It adds a savory, cheesy type essence to foods and is an excellent source of B12. Get my favorite brand here!
• As is true for most of my recipes, this is to be thought of as a template. Use what you have, or swap ingredients. Examples might be exchanging pepitas for sunflower seeds, using kale instead of Swiss chard, or removing pomegranates and replacing with red bell pepper or cherry tomatoes.

 

If you recreated this recipe, leave me your thoughts! Tell me how you customized it to make it your very own!