Neglected vegetables get a makeover

M aking unpopular but nutritious foods more appealing can be a

struggle. And with some veggies (and some people) it can take longer than with others. You just have to persevere.

Take Brussels sprouts, for example. To echo a certain popular saying about pets, brussels sprouts, despite what some people (especially teenagers) might think, are not just for Christmas.

A member of the brassica family, which also includes cabbages and kale, Brussels sprouts are what nutritionists call “nutrient-dense”. Some even call them super. But let’s not start that fight again.

In other words, a lot of goodness is packed into those tiny, shiny green heads. Sprouts are a source of B-complex vitamins as well as vitamins C, A and K, which slog away in the body alongside a slew of sprout-produced minerals including iron, potassium and sodium.

This helps to protect against disease and relieves oxidative stress on your heart, blood and so on.

All this goodness may not come as a surprise – it’s the reason you were so often told to eat your greens – but did you know that sprouts, like other dark green veg, are a fantastic source of calcium? This is useful to know generally, of course, but also if you are intolerant to or simply want to cut down on dairy, which is often touted as the only reliable source of calcium.

The question remains: how to make the misunderstood sprout a tastier prospect on your weekly menu?

The trick, in this case, is to take the humble sprout and serve it in unexpected form. In other words, take your audience by surprise.

And this week, I came up with two recipes that do exactly this – the first with sprouts, the second with another neglected vegetable, the cauliflower.

For the sprout recipe, the raw greens are shredded and then marinated in a vibrant, tangy dressing with miso, sesame oil and garlic.

This would be lovely with a steak, but also makes a fine companion for the second recipe – a tart with a cauliflower base, a kind of veg “pastry” that was based on a Natasha Corett recipe.

It calls for 350g cauliflower – that’s about three-quarters of a cauliflower – roast the rest with some of your favourite spices and a lick of olive oil in a hot oven until starting to brown. The creamy filling of grated courgette and goat’s cheese is delicious. And even the teenager loved the sprouts.

dkemp@irishtimes.com