How to love sprouts: a recipe for sproutiflette

Why sprouts, like puppies, are not just for Christmas and a recipe for cheesy, sprout-y indulgence to convert anyone.

Sprouts, like puppies, are not just for Christmas.

Yes, they absolutely must grace the Christmas table, boiled gently for no more than 3 minutes before being plunged into iced water then fried up with pancetta and chestnuts. But that should be just the start of it.

Because January, as I think the world at last sees, is not for detoxing, resetting or overhauling your diet in any way that doesn’t involve melted cheese. But it is for sprouts. Sprouts with cheese, ideally.

I don’t grow sprouts.

They are, for me anyway, too unreliable, some years growing thuggishly stocking trunks clad only with airy, leafy sprouts that have ‘blown’ rather than formed tight balls. And they take up far too much room in the bed (90cm between each plant) for far too long (9 months) to risk it. They are suspectable to white fly, pigeons and mice too, and will sulk in a gale.

So troublesome are sprouts, that when I discovered a front garden veg patch in a cottage near my parents’ house this Christmas, I had to visit it daily on my dog walk to marvel at the neat rows of sprout trunks, all clad with firm, crisp little balls.

Oh the potential.

Potential for any of the following:

• Shaved sprout salad - Shaved raw sprouts tossed with half and half mayonnaise and yogurt, then tossed with, as you have available, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, shredded chicken, chopped apple, parmesan and a few croutons for full effect.

• Parmesan sprouts – press cut sprout halves into grated parmesan then roast in a hot oven until charred.

• Marmalade sprouts – I know, I was sceptical too, but I’ve seen it done and it works. Sauté halved sprouts in butter then glaze with a spoon of marmalade in the final minutes of cooking.

• Or this Brussels sprouts, orange, feta and smoky pecan crumbs from

  Hetty Lui McKinnon
  :

Shaved brussels sprouts, orange, feta and smoky pecan crumbs

But most of all, a good sprout harvest means potential for sproutiflette: a recent discovery inspired by making the tartiflette recipe in Diana Henry’s re-released classic, Roast Figs, Sugar Snow. In place of the usual potatoes, I used sprouts, then made a few minor alternations of my own. Like this…

Sproutiflette

Dairy farmers of the Haute-Savoie would be very put out about my replacing reblochon, the traditional tartiflette cheese, with camembert, but then I figure I’ve already earnt their contempt by replacing the potatoes with sprouts, so why stop there. Plus, reblochon isn’t always easy to find. A couple of tips: the sprouts only need the briefest of boils; a crisp salad alongside lettuce is a must; so too, a crisp glass of the wine you cooked with.

serves one hungry person.