With Christmas fast approaching now seems a good time to mention that classic Christmas dinner vegetable – the humble sprout. I am talking about Brussels sprouts here. Not any other type of sprouts like bean sprouts etc…  So, who the hell like them? Well, amazingly, my son does. I suppose it’s a good thing when your kids like some vegetables, but sprouts certainly weren’t on the list of those I expected him to like. As for myself? I seem to have developed an unhealthy liking for the vegetable that is (usually) the scourge of kids everywhere.

We know (or at least we think) that sprouts are healthy, right? But liking them? Is that healthy too? It seems an odd food to actually like. Recently I have eaten them at least once a week and have discovered that you can eat them raw in salads… (See below for recipe)

Who likes sprouts?

“I like sprouts” is not a phrase you are likely to hear much is it? But having (kind of) rediscovered the humble sprout, I actually quite like them. Is that normal? It must be an age thing right?

Age. It’s just a number – so they say. But do our taste-buds change that much in middle age? Bloody hell! At this rate someone will buy me a packet of Werther’s Originals for Christmas. Nah. Still don’t like those Werther’s things… Yet!

Personally I was never one of those kids who really hated vegetables. I always ate my vegetables at dinner. Even sprouts. Maybe sometimes a little begrudgingly; but I ate them all. A bit of mum’s gravy usually helped wash the medicine down (so to speak). For most people that I know, eating sprouts means Christmas dinner. Maybe some other date for a family festive meal like Easter, Thanksgiving (USA) or similar. But rarely more than two or three times a year.

For me this is a new thing. Not just eating them but liking them. But Dani also quite likes them. That’s a good thing of course. We do not have to force vegetables down him. He just eats so bloody slowly!!! He doesn’t genuinely like them – in the same way as say, chocolate – but he tends to like them enough to just get on with it. Sprouts more than most other vegetables oddly enough.

How Healthy are Sprouts?

So, how healthy are sprouts? It seems that they are packed full of fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Vitamin C is found in many fruits and vegetables, but Brussels sprouts are one of the best vegetable sources available.

Of course we kind of all knew that anyway right? We’ve always known it. When your mum tells you to eat up all your vegetables (‘because they are good for you’) when you were a kid it made sense even then.

Just as well I like them then. All that remains is to try a couple of new sprout recipes including a raw sprout salad. And here goes…

Raw Sprout Salad

Here is the raw sprout salad recipe I (more or less) made up on the fly with what was available…

Mix the following ingredients in a bowl:

Tin of tuna
Half a small tin of sweetcorn
Sliced stick of celery
One large sprout thinly sliced
A few sliced sun-dried tomatoes

To finish…
Sprinkle of pine nuts
Sprinkle of sesame seeds
Drizzle olive oil
Splash of apple cider vinegar

Bingo! And this is what it looks like:

OK, as this was my first raw sprout meal I only used one large sprout. But it was fine. Next time I will use more. Despite most of the ingredients coming out of tins, jars and packets it certainly sounds and looks healthy, right? Well, that’s what I am telling myself anyway…