Love your brussels: A recipe for sprout sushi rolls

As far as I work out, there are two attitudes when it comes to brussels sprouts.

The first attitude is that of the sprout dodger: they should be wheeled out for Christmas dinner, eaten under duress, and then the unfortunate digestive after-effects lived through during the Queen's speech. They should never be eaten under any other circumstances. 

The second attitude is that of the sprout pusher, who views the sprout as a little ball of surprisingly versatile, green cabbagy joy that sprout pushers, if only they would put aside their cruciferous prejudices, would learn to appreciate.

I'm firmly in the second camp: sprouts aren't just for Christmas, they're for life.

When I mean they're not just for Christmas, that's because the tail end of the continent-sized bag I brought for Christmas is still hanging around, so I need to use them up. This recipe is one of my favourite ways to cook them - there's something about sprouts and soy sauce that's just meant to be. 

With that in mind, the other day, craving a bit sushi, I though maybe I'd put some of my leftover sprouts to good use. Add bit of sushi rice to a few lightly fried sprouts and a bit of soy sauce, and you'll get one very happy Joey. 

I'm sending this to Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table for January's Eat Your Greens Challenge.

Sprout sushi

Makes six pieces

Ingredients

100mls (not grams) of sushi rice

150mls of water

One tablespoon of rice vinegar

One tablespoon of mirin

One sheet of nori

75g of sprouts, any discoloured outer leaves removed, larger sprouts cut into quarters, smaller ones into halves

A teaspoon of dark soy sauce

How you do it

Rinse the sushi rice until the water runs clear

Put into a saucepan with the water, pop a lid (ideally a glass one) on top, turn on the heat to high.

When the water starts boiling, turn the heat down to low, and let cook for seven minutes. 

After the seven minutes, take the rice off the heat, and leave to cool for 10 minutes. (At no point during the cooking should you take the lid off - only after the 10 minutes are up.)

Once the ten minutes are over, add a tablespoon of rice vinegar and one of mirin. Stir and leave to cool some more.

While the rice cools, warm a little oil in a frying pan and fry the sprouts over medium high heat until crisp tender and a little brown on the outside. If the sprouts begin to stick on your saucepan, add a little water to the pan. After about ten minutes, they should be cooked through. Add the soy sauce to the sprouts and turn off the heat.

Once the sprouts and rice are cool, spread the rice after the nori, and roll it up.

Using a sharp knife, cut into six pieces.

Appreciate the joy of sprouts.