I recently found myself going on a whirlwind trip through the grocery store, quickly grabbing something to make for dinner on my way home from work.
Joey and I were all geared up to watch a basketball game, and I (of course) ended up getting caught in the office far later than I wanted. And (of course) I’d already volunteered to be the chef for the night.
I started in the meat section and found some amazing, thick pork chops, and then I hurried over to the produce area to try to come up with a side dish.
I normally avoid already prepared vegetables—mostly because I’m cheap, but I took a look anyway since I was in a hurry. I found a marked-down bag of already-washed Brussels sprouts and already-cubed sweet potatoes.
I pulled out my phone and quickly searched online for a “Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes” side dish and was thankful that the Internet is always at my fingertips, making it easy for me to know that a recipe was readily available when I got home.
The one I found came from the website “My Recipes” and was written by Robert Wiedmaier. You can find it at https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/caramelized-sweet-potatoes-brussels-sprouts. I added more garlic and changed up the instructions a bit.
Caramelized Sweet Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts
Ingredients
- 2 sweet potatoes peeled and diced
- 1 pound Brussels sprouts halved
- 6-8 cloves garlic minced
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 tablespoons melted butter
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean up.
- Combine all the ingredients on the baking sheet and mix with your hands to fully coat the vegetables in oil, butter and seasonings. Spread the vegetables out into as much of a single layer as you can.
- Place in the oven for 25 minutes (or until they reach your preferred level of tenderness), stirring the vegetables halfway through.
- Serve right away.
My vegetables ended up staying in the oven for about 10 minutes longer than the listed time, just because I tend to really like tender sprouts, but it was such an easy side dish to just toss in the oven while I was cooking my pork chops.
The original recipe calls for spreading them out on two rimmed sheets, which would probably make the cooking go a bit more quickly, but they weren’t very crowded on my single pan, so I didn’t bother with a second.
And I did end up not getting to see a bit of the first half of basketball while I was in the kitchen, but thanks to some quick, prepared veggies, I didn’t have to miss much, our guys sealed the victory, and we had a great dinner.
I’d call that a win.
This piece first appeared in print on Nov. 28, 2019.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
