I was never a fan of brussel sprouts growing up, there was nothing I liked about the steamed bombs of stinky, soft, concentrated cabbage flavour. It was torture.

Then one day my husband stir fried them in olive oil with garlic and bacon and it was an astonishing revelation how good they could be. I mean bacon, right? He changed everything… and now I enjoy them, but only either roasted or stir fried.

I did a trial run with this recipe for Thanksgiving dinner and here it is. I use butter, add shallots, chilli flakes and garlic with plenty of lemon zest.

You’ll need:

• One cast iron skillet, hot
• 1/2 stick butter
• 3 shallots or 1 onion, sliced and diced
• 12 large brussel sprouts trimmed and cut in half
• 4 strips bacon, chopped up
• Zest of a lemon
• Chilli flakes, to taste
• 4x Crushed fresh garlic cloves
• Ground pepper to taste
• Ground Himalayan salt to taste

Method:

• Heat the pan to medium hot heat, more hot than medium
• Add the butter until sizzling
• Add shallots cook until just soft
• Add diced bacon cook 3 minutes
• Add brussel sprouts placing face down nestled in between the other ingredients
• Press them down with spatula to brown them for about 3 to 5 minutes
• When they are nicely browned turn them over and brown the other side
• When ready stir all the deliciousness together in the pan until nicely stir fried and mixed
• Add the chilli flakes, ground salt and pepper
• When ready add the garlic, turning it in
• Top with lemon zest and serve

It’s truly delicious!

We had it with a 1/2 a cup of cottage cheese, and I grated more lemon zest on my curds. Really good!