Roasted chipotle sprouts

First of all, I would like to apologise to anyone who read this post in it's half completed state. I'm going to blame my error of hitting the "Publish" button rather than "Preview" on post earthquake jitters! Needless to say I was rather embarrassed about releasing an incomplete post. Oh well, it's a reminder that accidents happen and we all make mistakes from time to time. ;-) 

We had a mix match Mexican inspired dinner last Friday night. I wanted to use up the rest of Cadry's black beans in soft tacos but there were only enough beans for a single taco each. I thought about my available ingredients for a while and came up with the following simple solution - spicy roasted vegetables. It had been a while since I made a batch of my Mexe wedges so they were definitely going to be in and I also recalled how delicious the chipotle carrots chips from where's the beef had been when I had tried them recently.

On this night I really felt like eating some greens so instead of carrots I decided to test the recipe out with brussel sprouts. I've enjoyed smoky sprouts before and spicy ones shredded into stir frys although I've never combined these two wonderful flavours with sprouts. Another bonus of using sprouts was the shortened cooking time as they take less time to roast than carrots.


It's a very simple recipe to prepare, after prepping your veggies it's just a matter of mixing through some finely chopped chipotle chillies in adobo sauce along with a bit of oil and salt before roasting in the oven. I used 2 chipotle chillies which gave the sprouts a decent amount of heat and added a bit of lime juice to the mix this time as I had been squeezing limes for guacamole and had a little bit of juice leftover. It's difficult to pick a favourite of these two vegetables roasted in this tasty blend as they are both unique in their own way. This is a different way to prepare roasted vegetables and they pair well with any Mexican themed meal, especially in cold weather when salad items aren't as appetising.

Before I leave you with the recipe, Kari of Bite-sized thoughts kindly nominated me for the Food Stories Award for Excellence in Storytelling. Many thanks Kari! I feel honoured to receive this award and am even more excited to hand it out to others who I believe are better storytellers than myself. The bloggers I would like to nominate are:

• Cadry - Cadry's Kitchen
• Joey - Flicking the Vs
• Johanna - Green Gourmet Giraffe
• Jojo - Vegan in Brighton
• Theresa - The Tropical Vegan 

The Food Stories Award requires the recipient to share a random fact about themselves as well as passing the award onto 5 other bloggers. Here is my fact.

I don't wear any make-up at all and have never used moisturisers, hand lotions, etc. There was a stage in my late teens when I did wear make-up and I have popped a little bit on for an occasion like a wedding but I don't enjoy the heavy fake feel of it. I'm sure my skin is thankful for this and the other bonus was that I didn't need to consider product changes when transitioning to a vegan lifestyle.

Roasted chipotle sprouts (Adapted from where's the beef, originally from Tofu for Two)

500g brussell sprouts
1-2 chipotle chillies in adobo sauce, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
¼-½ teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoons lime juice (optional)

Preheat oven to 200C.

Trim the sprouts of their outer leaves and cut into halves. Place the sprouts in a bowl, toss the rest of the ingredients over the top and use your hands to coat the sprouts in the mixture evenly.

Bake in the oven on a roasting tray lined with baking paper for 20 minutes, flipping the sprouts after about 10 minutes.