T-day Side: Brussel Sprout Extravaganza!!

It is officially that time of year again, when eating starts to get seriously heavy, we increase our cardio 300%, and we take serious naps. Thanksgiving tips off when the holiday eating gets a little out of control. When I think of holiday food I think of satisfying several cravings, 1)salt, 2)something hearty, 3) something rich, and 4)definitely some sort of carb is involved. Michael and I have come up with a simple Thanksgiving day side which hits on all of these notes.

Our side is roasted brussel sprouts, tossed with long grain rice, and then topped with crisped pancetta. For vegetarians, just remove the pancetta, then voila, welcome to tasty town.

Ingredients: serves 8
1 ½ lbs brusssel sprouts
2/3 cup diced pancetta
½ cup long grain rice
¼ cup olive oil
½ a lemon
Salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Start by cleaning and slicing the sprouts. In a colander rinse the sprouts with water, pulling off any outer leaves that look browned of to have holes. Cut the bottom of the sprout of and then cut in half lengthwise. Place in large bowl, and pour in most but about 2 Tablespoons of olive oil and mix, sprinkling with salt three separate times. Lay the brussel sprouts out onto two baking sheets and place in oven for 40 minutes.

Be sure that 20 minutes in to flip some of the brussel sprouts around and turn the actual trays around in the oven.

To make the long grain rice, follow the direction of water to rice that they give you (not all rice is the same). Set aside.

While those are cooking in a large sauce pan place all of your pancetta and render it down until it is nice and crispy. If you cannot find already diced pancetta, render the whole pancetta down and dice once crispy. Once crispy, layout on a plate covered with a paper towel. Set aside.

Once the sprouts are done, place all the ingredients in a bowl, pour the rest of the oil in, and squeeze the lemon. Mix and serve!!

Happy Thanksgiving!