This recipe is out of my second cookbook The Vegan Butcher: now available for preorder worldwide.

Vegan Bacon Coated Brussels Sprouts

Brussel’s sprouts get a bad rap from people who haven’t let them blossom from little green caterpillars into delicious butterflies by cooking them right. Give brussel’s sprouts a good wrap by covering them in plant based bacon, filling them with maple syrup and people will start inviting you to parties solely on the merit of your hors d'oeuvres game. As the first copies of The Vegan Butcher have begun arriving for the early preorders, I thought I’d share this recipe from the book for everyone else to snack on while they wait for their main course to arrive.

INGREDIENTS

24 Brussels sprouts
12 pieces store bought vegan bacon (swap in rice paper bacon or one of the other 8 bacons from the book if desired)
2 tablespoons smoked maple syrup/maple syrup
1 tablespoon vegan butter
Salt and pepper

Prepare the sprouts: Cut off the hard end of each then make a slice to halve the sprout, leaving them attached by a few cm at the harder end. Move to a plate and microwave for one minute.

Place the butter in a mixing jug and microwave for 20 seconds to soften. Whisk in the salt, pepper and maple syrup. Gently pry apart the sprouts (keeping the halves attached) and use a pastry brush to drizzle in the maple mixture, then treat the sprouts by brushing the outsides with even more.

Preheat the oven to 175c. Halve the bacon pieces lengthwise. Pry open a sprout again and feed one end of the bacon into it as though the sprout is pac-man. Gently rotate the sprout along the bacon strip to wrap it up. Towards the end, turn the sprout on it’s side the bacon is wrapped around the sides of the sprout. Carefully take the loose end of the bacon and tuck it into the wrapped part to secure. Glaze with any extra maple mixture and bake for 45 minutes until the outside is crispy.

Remove from the oven and drizzle a little extra maple syrup over them while they’re still hot. Serve with a dipping sauce (I’m fond of smoked aioli.. guess what book the recipe is in?), and cover in aluminum and return to the oven if you need to rewarm them.