Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Almonds and Sriracha

Yes, that just happened...

If you love Brussels sprouts, you need to try this.

If you love sriracha, you  need to try this.

My friend Dawn made some homemade sriracha sauce and had a ton left over. She was kind enough to give me some of the red goodness and I was super excited to work with it. I...in case you didn't know...am a huge fan of sriracha. Huge. Like, intervention-level fan of sriracha. I literally put it on everything from Asian noodles to pizza to scrambled eggs. So when I got some homemade version, I was beyond excited to work with it.

The idea for this dish came to me when I was staring at the bag of Brussels sprouts in my fridge, the mason jar of sriracha next to them. Boom! It hit me right there. The flavors in my opinion, between earthy nutty sprouts together with spicy with underlying sweetness that is the goodness known as sriracha is effing AMAZING. I prepped this dish super on the low-cal side and super simply: tossed the sprouts which I halved in a little bit of olive oil (just enough to lightly coat), seasoned simply with salt and pepper and roasted off. Then when about done, took out of the oven and to tossed the sprouts in a ginger-garlic puree. The ginger gave brightness and the garlic a classic savory base. Then, topped with some slivered almonds for crunch. Back in the oven it goes for another 5 minutes on lower temp to toast the almonds. Finally when ready to serve, a generous drizzle of homemade sriracha!

Dawn got the recipe for sriracha from Nom Nom Paleo. She details an excellent blog post with pictures on the process, and the ingredients are super simple and easy to find. As much as I love sriracha, I agree....I did turn a blind eye to all of the preservatives and unpronounceable "stuff" making up part of my most cherished of condiments. But now! Now with this super easy recipe, I can make my own guilt-free and PALEO sriracha! And the heavens split and the light shined forth and the choirs of angels sang, "Hail to the paleo srircha! Hail! Go forth and multiply the red fiery goodness."

And so I shall.

So if you make your own sriracha or use the classic, this recipe is a must-try for you. So good....so delicious....so healthy and guilt free. So...."aaaaaah!!!" My recipe for the sprouts with sriracha here is good for a side dish portion for 4 people. You can easily expand it to suit a larger crowd. Just taste and adjust proportions of ingredients accordingly.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Almonds and Sriracha

1 lb brussels sprouts, cleaned and ends trimmed

1 Tbsp spoon olive oil

1 garlic clove, peeled but left whole (i.e. not smashed)

fresh ginger knob, peeled

2 Tbsp slivered almonds (raw, unsalted)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

sriracha (recipe link follows)

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

 

Take the sprouts and cut each in half; in quarters if you have particularly large ones. You want them bite-sized and all about the same size to ensure even cooking. Place in a bowl and toss with the olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Make sure they're coated well. Layer out on a baking sheet and roast in oven, turning once, abut 15 minutes depending on your oven's strength. I like tender sprouts but still a good bite to them; and I like some caramelization on them.

 

Take the sprouts out of the oven and reduce oven temp to 350.

 

While the sprouts are cooking you can prepare your ginger-garlic puree. Simply take the garlic clove and grate it using a microplane. Do the same with the ginger. You want about net 1 tsp each of grated garlic and grated ginger. Do not use jarred garlic or ginger for this -- the taste will be inferior. You really want to use fresh ingredients.

 

When the sprouts are tender and have some good caramelization on them, take them out of the oven and place them back into the bowl you used with the olive oil. Now add the garlic and ginger puree on top and use a spoon to toss the roasted sprouts in the garlic and ginger. Turn out the sprouts back on the baking sheet (same one; no need to use a fresh one) and sprinkle with the almonds right on top. Return back to oven and cook another 5 minutes. Remember -- you're cooking them now at 350 (not 400) so as not to burn the garlic, ginger, and almonds!

 

When ready remove and drizzle with sriracha to your taste. Enjoy.



Recipe to make your own paleo-friendly sriracha sauce can be found here.