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Roasted sprouts with a hint of honey and pancetta. The perfect accompaniment to your Christmas dinner. Plus my top tips for making Christmas day cooking stress free.
I don’t know about you, but I’m already feeling very festive, so when Crisp ‘n Dry challenged me to have a Crisp ‘n Dry run of our Christmas dinner I jumped at the chance. Any excuse for a bit of festive cooking 🙂
Whilst I was busy whipping up Christmas dinner I thought I’d also share my recipe for honey roasted sprouts with pancetta. In my opinion roasting is the best way to cook sprouts, it adds so much flavour as well as a little crunchiness to the outer leaves. Coupled with the saltiness of the pancetta and the slight hint of honey they taste delicious.
As well as using Crisp ‘n Dry to make my sprouts, I also used it to baste my turkey giving it a golden glow and crispy skin, as well as for my roast potatoes and honey roasted carrots and parsnips.
Tips for a stress-free Christmas lunch
Christmas day should be fun for everyone so I thought I’d share my top tips for making Christmas lunch as hassle free as possible, as well as some tips from a few other amazing bloggers…
- Relax, enjoy it and don’t worry if things aren’t perfect – Christmas is supposed to be one of the best days of the year, so enjoy it. People will either not notice any mishaps, or they’ll be so huge that they’ll become legendary and you can reminisce with your family about them for many Christmases to come 🙂
- Simplify everything – Do you really need 3 different meats, 5 different sauces and 17 different vegetables? It’s easy to go a bit mad on Christmas Day and create a lot more work than we really need to for one meal. Work out what is really essential and forget about the rest. There is so much more to Christmas than a big, fancy meal no one can finish – Easy Peasy Foodie.
- Practice – If you don’t cook many roasts then practice a few times in the run up to the big day so you’ll be confident you know what you’re doing on Christmas morning.
- Invest in a steamer or slow cooker – They create extra cooking space if your oven or hob are a bit too full (plus slow cookers are great for mulled wine 🙂 ) – Baking Queen 74 & Welsh Mum.
- Plan your day – Make a timetable of everything that needs doing for the dinner and work backwards from the time you want to sit down and eat – Foodie Quine.
- Don’t work alone – Outsource some of the preparation and cooking to your kids (if they’re old enough), family and friends.
- Prepare your vegetables on Christmas Eve – Peel and chop your vegetables and pop them into a pan of salted water overnight.
- Set your table and find all of your dishes, pans and utensils the day before – Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.
- Make and heat your sauces in advance, then store them in an insulated flask until they’re needed – Foodie Quine.
- Use disposable aluminium baking trays – It makes for a lot less washing up.
- Plan something to keep the kids entertained – If they’re not ready to help out in the kitchen then plan some games to keep them out of your way while you’re busy cooking – Croque Maman.
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Honey Roasted Sprouts with Pancetta
INGREDIENTS
- 400 g sprouts
- 1 tbsp Crisp 'n Dry
- 1 tsp honey
- 65 g pancetta cubes - or unsmoked streaky bacon cut into strips
- Salt
INSTRUCTIONS
- Pre-heat the oven to 190C/170C fan.
- Cut any large sprouts in half so you have bite-sized pieces.
- In a small bowl, mix together the Crisp 'n Dry and honey. Place the sprouts into a baking tray and drizzle over the oil & honey mixture. Toss the sprouts so they're evenly coated. Season with salt.
- Roast for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and turn the sprouts. Add the pancetta to the tray and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes until the sprouts are crisp on the outside and soft in the middle.
- Serve.
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
Free From/Suitable For…
- Egg-Free
- Gluten-Free
- Nut-Free
- Soy-Free
- Corn-Free
The ingredients for this recipe are easily available free from all these allergens. However, please ensure you double-check allergen information for all ingredients.
Grace @ Eats Amazing says
Your photos are making me hungry – bring on Christmas day!! Sprouts are my favourite veg, it definitely isn’t Christmas without them. I’ll be trying your recipe ASAP!
Charlotte Oates says
I agree, Christmas dinner just would be the same without sprouts 🙂
Eb Gargano | Easy Peasy Foodie says
Lovely recipe, Charlotte – and what a gorgeous Christmas spread! I am a huge fan of the roasted sprout 😀 I’ve actually been working on one of my own sprout recipes today…another slightly leftfield idea…but it worked! Not quite as crazy as the blue cheese one I did a few years back!! Thanks so much for including my tip…I make it my mission every year to make my Christmas Dinner even easier than the last one…eventually I’ll probably just be down to the sprouts 😉 Eb x
Charlotte Oates says
I’m on the same mission, although I’ve realised that the best way to be stress free is confidence. I know what I’m doing with a roast now so I’m quite happy pottering away in the kitchen making it on Christmas day.
Kate - gluten free alchemist says
Crisp and Dry takes me back to my childhood….. I remember the early TV adverts! Best thing about Xmas is the dinner! x
Charlotte Oates says
I don’t remember those ads, you’ll have to job my memory of what was in them.
Helene AKA Croque-Maman says
Such a useful post! Organising Christmas can feel overwhelming whilst it is such a great opportunity to share quality time with your family Fab recipe too, I will bookmark it
Lucy says
What a delicious way to serve sprouts, will give this a whirl for sure. Your turkey looks amazing basted with Crisp n Dry, I will have to stock up. Thanks for including my tip too!
Charlotte Oates says
It really does give the turkey (although I cheated, that’s actually chicken as there was only four of us!) a wonderful golden glow. It gets the skin all crispy too.
Kirsty Phillipson-Lowe says
I love Christmas dinner and there are some fantastic tips! Thank you for including my tip x
Charlotte Oates says
It’s one of the best meals of the year isn’t it!
Midge @ Peachicks' Bakery says
Oooh yum!! Our favourite way to eat sprouts along with a sprinkling of dairyfree parmesan! X
Charlotte Oates says
I’ve not had sprout with parmesan before (dairy free or otherwise). I really must fix that because I bet it tastes amazing!