If my mum reads this, she’ll probably faint with shock… I ate a serving of brussel sprouts last night (or the devil’s cabbages as I call them). Martin has seen all these different dishes with brussel sprouts in them and yes they do look lovely, but come on people…. it’s sprouts! But I’m an adult, I should be able to prepare a dish which I can actually eat without feeling nauseous and Martin loves sprouts so I feel I should give it a go.

When I was a kid, my mum would serve us sprouts with a big plate of mash and I’m sure there was brisket or some meat product in there, but all I remember is waiting for her to disappear back in the kitchen, then I’d take my little sister’s plate, pinch her mash and replace it with my sprouts (incidentally, she likes sprouts… she had to!!), this happened a lot!

But last night, I made some caramelized Brussel Sprouts and I managed to eat them. I’m not saying I’m an automatic lover of the mini cabbages, but they were edible, Martin wolfed them down, he was loving it, but I can honestly say, I won’t avoid making a dish now if it has sprouts in it. But I still wouldn’t eat them au naturale, eugh!

One tip if I make this again would be to perhaps add some nutritional yeast or even a dollop of tahini in with my mash, it just felt like it needed something, so when you make yours, give it a taste and season and spice accordingly. Don’t go mad with the pepper either!

Roasted Peppers stuffed with Fruit & Nut Rice served with Peppered Cauliflower Mash & Caramelized Brussel Sprouts

MyInspiration Feel The Difference Range

Serves 2 as a main meal

For the Stuffed Pepper

½ onion finely chopped

½ tbsp Olive Oil

1 cup brown basmati rice

2 cups vegetable stock

1 pinch rosemary

½ apple chopped

Seeds from ½ a pomegranate

6 walnuts finely chopped

4 large bell peppers

2 tbsp tahini

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees

2. Prepare your rice – first heat the oil in a sauce pan over a medium heat and sauté your onions for 4 minutes, then add in the basmati rice & rosemary and stir to coat everything, then add in the 2 cups of veg stock and reduce the heat to low and simmer until the water evaporates, give it a stir every now and again to avoid the rice sticking to the pan.

3. While the rice is cooking, chop the tops off your peppers and remove the seeds from inside, then sit the peppers in a baking tray and roast in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven.

3. Once the rice is cooked, add the tahini, chopped walnuts, apple and pomegranate seeds and mix through. Then spoon the mixture into the bell peppers and pop back in the oven for 10 minutes.

For the Cauliflower Mash

4 cups of cauliflower florets

1 clove garlic

Large pinch of thyme

½ tsp black pepper

Method

1. Steam your cauliflower for 10 minutes – I filled the bottom of a large sauce pan with boiling water (about an inch deep) and sat my colander in it with the cauliflower florets and covered) and allowed to steam that way.

2. Remove from the pan and drain, pop the cauliflower in a blender with the garlic, thyme & pepper and pulse until smooth.

For the Caramelized Brussel Sprouts

15 brussel sprouts (chop off the stems, peel off outer layer and make a cross incision)

1 tbsp vegan margarine

1 tbsp natural brown sugar

Method

1. In a pan, heat the butter and add the brussel sprouts coating then in the margarine, sprinkle over the sugar and allow to cook for 10 minutes, giving then a shake to make sure they are caramelizing evenly.