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As I may have mentioned before I am a dedicated fan of the brussels sprout.  Well this year is the first time I’ve grown them and I wasn’t sure how well they’d do as I suppose I tend to think of them as a more northern and particularly British vegetable.

Happily I was wrong.  These vegetables grown in Spain are just as nice (well for me anyway) as those grown in the UK.  Growing brussels sprouts in Spain or elsewhere is easy – just treat as you would any brassica but be more wary of wind damage as they grow so tall. There is more detailed information on growing brussels sprouts, particularly in Spain here.

Sprouts are supposed to enjoy a good sharp frost to really get their flavour up.  We haven’t had any hard frost this year – only managing a minor one on boxing day, which was too late!  So I decided when sprout picking on Christmas morning I would collect some leeks too, which I’ve heard also need a good frost.  As you can tell I like to live on the edge!

I have to admit a bit of disappointment at how few sprouts were ready and how small they all were.  But I had set out to eat my own brussels sprouts for Christmas dinner and I was not about to be defeated just yet.

Recipe -Leeky Sprouts

• Trim sprouts of any loose leaves.  Clean and trim leeks – I like to keep a good amount of green on mine but the recipe books always say just keep the white.
• Cut any large sprouts in half so they’ll all cook at the same time and slice leeks into similar size rounds.  Peel and crush a clove or two of garlic.
• Melt a knob of butter and saute veggies for 5 mins.
• Add a drop (a few tablespoons should do it) of water/stock to the pan, put the lid on and simmer for 5 mins.  Add a knob more butter, a grind of black pepper and sprinkle with salt if you like.
• Voila – flavoursome, buttery veggies.

I had planned on going down the whole chestnut / pancetta route but when it came to it I figured there’s enough going on at Christmas dinner so kept it simple.

Well for me the sprouts had loads of flavour, they were nutty and sweet and not too smelly as they were so fresh.  They were too few and too small but I guess with 6 plants and only me eating them in another few weeks I’ll be complaining about having too many…

I think either the books are all wrong, or the Spanish have come up with their own non-frost-needing variety.  I don’t care which it is I’m just glad I can have good quality sprouts this winter.