Sweet & sour sticky-fried brussels sprouts #15minutedinner
The Internet is such a cool thing. It allows you to easily check which recipes are quickly becoming popular (although sometimes it is completely opposite to your expectations). While posting some pictures of food on Instagram, it totally amazed me how popular my photo of Asian-style brussels sprouts was. I had prepared it quite spontaneously for lunch in just a few minutes, but because there were so many questions about the recipe, now I am, with great pleasure, catching up.
To prepare these brussels sprouts, I used the standard Asian technique of glaze-frying the ingredients with starch. As a result, the vegetables are covered with a pleasantly sticky sauce, while remaining wonderfully crispy.
Sweet & sour sticky-fried brussels sprouts #15minutedinner
a decent lunch portion (or two regular portions)
- 250g of brussels sprouts
- 1 tbsp of starch: potato, corn or tapioca
- 3 or 4 tablespoons of frying oil
- Sauce:
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar (or 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar)
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- a large pinch (or half a tsp!) of chilli or one small, finely chopped chilli pepper
- optional: finely chopped ginger, a tbsp of sesame oil
To serve:
- rice / quinoa / favourite groats
- chopped chives / coriander / peanuts / sesame
- In a medium-sized pot or pan, bring salted water to a boil.
- Wash the brussels sprouts, cut them in half and throw them into the boiling water. When they start to boil, wait one minute and then quickly strain the veggies.
- Drain the hot brussels sprouts and cover them with starch. You can do this in a strainer or a colander used for straining.
- At the bottom of a large pan, heat the oil. Fry the brussels sprouts for about 3 minutes on each side until they are lightly brown (they should fit nicely in the pan – if there are too many, it is better to fry them in two batches).
- Prepare the ingredients for the sauce – mix them all in a bowl or glass. Add the sauce to the pan-fried brussels sprouts and, stirring vigorously over low heat for a minute or two to let the sauce thicken.
Brussels sprouts are best fried fresh, served with rice (you can fry some cold leftover rice using the same pan in the remaining sauce).
