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.

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. 

Add a splash of the white balsamic vinegar, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. 

Now add in the halved Brussels sprouts with a small splash of water. 

Pop the lid on and cook for about 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the halved sprouts are just tender. 

Add the sausage crumbles back in.

 Add a final drizzle of white balsamic. Taste for salt and pepper, adding more if necessary. 

Sprinkle with some chopped red chili pepper and serve. 

Enjoy!

Check out all the great holiday side dishes my friends are sharing! There is no excuse this holiday season for boring sides. 

• Bacon Wrapped Green Bean Bundles by House of Nash Eats
• Balsamic Glazed Baby Onions by Savory Experiments
• Best Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe by The Fresh Cooky
• Brussels Sprouts and Bacon Stuffing by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Brussels Sprouts and Potatoes with Sausage Crumbles by Food Lust People Love
• Cauliflower Gratin by Lemon Blossoms
• Cheese Herb Potato Gratin by Shockingly Delicious
• Cheesy Broccoli Cauliflower Casserole by Blogghetti
• Cranberry Fluff by An Affair from the Heart
• Easy Chorizo Cornbread Dressing by A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
• Hasselback Sweet Potatoes with Cranberries & Pecans by Sweet Beginnings
• Holiday Side Salad by Our Good Life
• Honey Roasted Carrots by Devour Dinner
• No Knead Cloverleaf Dinner Rolls by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Roasted Buttercup Squash by Palatable Pastime
• Roasted fingerling potatoes with Parmesan by The Foodie Affair
• Sauteed Spinach with Bacon by Kate's Recipe Box
• Slow Cooker Cheesy Vegetables by Cheese Curd in Paradise
• Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecans by West Via Midwest
• Sweet Potato Salad by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Traditional Cranberry Sauce by Family Around the Table
• Twiced Baked Sweet Potatoes by Cindy's Recipes and Writings

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Roasted Garlicky Brussels Sprouts

Roasted Garlicky Brussels Sprouts are the best Brussel sprouts - crunchy and tender - the roasting brings out their natural sweetness, complemented by the garlic. Delicious! 

So many of the vegetables I grew up hating, I now love.  The baby green cabbages we call Brussels sprouts were one of my most hated, right up there with okra (except fried), merliton, squash, cabbage (except raw), turnips and eggplant. My mother used to make me eat these, which only increased my loathing.  I must have been about 12 or 13 when she had an epiphany.  She loved these vegetables and her daughters did not.  She finally said, “More for me!” and stopped forcing them on us.  Which, of course, opened up the window for us to begin liking them.  Go figure.

This is one of my favorite ways to eat Brussels sprouts.  If you give them a try and still don’t like them, this recipe works just as well with broccoli florets.  When my daughters are at home, I often mix the two in the pan and then they pick out the broccoli for their plates. Leaving me the Brussels.  And so the cycle continues.

Ingredients

1 1/4 pounds of Brussels sprouts

2 cloves of garlic

Sea salt

Black pepper

Olive oil

Method

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Drizzle olive oil on the baking pan.  Cut the hard ends off of the sprouts and cut the larger ones in half. 

Toss them in the pan, including all the loose leaves, adding another good drizzle of olive oil, until they are nicely coated.  If you need to use your hands here, please do.  I certainly did.

Spread them out in a single layer.  Sprinkle generously with seal salt and freshly ground black pepper and pop into the preheated oven.

Meanwhile grate or finely mince your garlic.

Roast the sprouts for about 15 minutes and then take the pan out of the oven and stir the sprouts around.  Add the garlic and mix thoroughly.  If the sprouts look dry, add a little more olive oil.

Roast for about 15 minutes more.  The sprouts should be nicely colored, but tender, and the loose leaves will be deliciously crispy.  Serve, making sure everyone gets some of the crispy bits.  They are my favorite part!