Food Lust People Love: Brussels Sprouts and Potatoes with Sausage Crumbles

If you are looking for a wonderful, flavorful side dish for the holidays, try my Brussels sprouts and potatoes with sausage crumbles, that is, a lovely mix of aromatics fried with sausage until crispy and golden.

Food Lust People Love: If you are looking for a wonderful, flavorful side dish for the holidays, try my Brussels sprouts and potatoes with sausage crumbles, that is, a lovely mix of aromatics fried with sausage until crispy and golden.

Welcome to Holiday Side Week, brainchild of Heather from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks, where side dishes are the star of your celebration table! Make sure you scroll down past my recipe to check out all the other wonderful side dishes we are sharing. I’ve always thought that side dishes don’t get enough credit so I am delighted to join the group this year.

This side dish is one I’ve adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe. I’ve loved him since 2002 and he’s still one of my favorite chefs. Jamie’s done a couple of new series just for the pandemic that haven’t made it across the pond yet so I watch them online and it’s such a joy to see his smiling, encouraging face and easy manner in the kitchen.

Jamie’s at home, just like the rest of us, cooking for family and making wild substitutions, just like the rest of us when we can’t find our normal ingredients in stock.

About the humble sprout, he says they tend to work best when totally over-cooked or only just cooked and this recipe gives you the best of both with half of the sprouts cooked till golden and almost crispy and the other half lightly steamed and bright green.

Brussels Sprouts and Potatoes with Sausage Crumbles

Jamie uses a typical British sausage called Cumberland in his dish so I chose a fresh pork sausage in natural casing that has a very similar flavor profile. Use whatever fresh tasty sausage you have available or you can even substitute bacon in a pinch.

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 medium onion

1-2 rosemary sprigs

1 large clove garlic

1 lb or 450g Brussels sprouts

2 large Russet potatoes (approx. weight 1 lb 10 oz or 750g)

1/2 teaspoon whole fennel seeds

2 quality fresh sausages

1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar

Optional: chopped red chili pepper for heat and garnish

Method

Peel and chop the onion finely. Peel and sliver the garlic. Pull the leaves off of the rosemary sprigs and chop them finely.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes. In a bowl, cover the potatoes with cool water so they don’t turn brown. Set the bowl aside.

Cut and discard the hard stem ends off of your Brussels sprouts. Finely slice half of the sprouts and cut the other half in halves.

Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a large lidded pan, then add the onion, fennel seeds and rosemary and cook over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes, until the onion is soft.

Squeeze the sausage meat out of the casing and add it to the onion pan. Break it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks, until it is just small bits.

Keep frying until the sausage is golden and starting to get crisp. Add in the garlic and fry for just a few minutes more until everything is a luscious crunchy brown. The lighting on my stove is terrible. Apologies.

Remove the sausage and seasonings from the pan and set aside.

Drizzle a little more olive oil into the pan. Drain the cubed potatoes and dry them on a clean kitchen towel. We want them to brown and wet taters will just steam.

Put the potatoes single file in the pan over a medium high heat and don’t stir until they are golden on the bottom. You can give the pan a shake occasionally. Toss the potatoes and leave them to brown on a second side, turning them with tongs, if need be.

Keep tossing and turning until the potato cubes are golden on all sides.

Scoot the potatoes to the sides and add the sliced sprouts to the middle with another drizzle of olive oil.

Put the lid on and cook for about 5 minutes, without stirring.

Remove the lid and cook for a further 5 minutes, raising the heat a little. You want the sprouts to toast and brown. You can stir them into the potatoes at this point.