When I experimented with the hypoallergenic diet a couple of months ago, I had to get really creative with my meal prep. While I still tend to avoid some of the most common allergens (gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, refined sugar), I am not being as strict with the other items on the AIP at the moment.
That said, having healthy, quick recipes on hand to get me through busy weeks has been great!
I’ve adapted this meal from a side dish my mother-in-law frequently makes that is always a hit at family dinners.
I’ve actually made this dish for guests a few times and every person has asked for the recipe, so not only does it serve as a quick weekday meal, but apparently it’s also great for wowing guests!
(I think people like it so much because they are truly surprised that a healthy broccoli and brussels sprouts dish can also be so tasty).
And what is the super health benefit of this dish?
Cruciferous veggies. You’ve heard of them, right? They’re a family of veggies (also known as the Brassica family) that have tons of health benefits and include broccoli, brussels sprouts, boy choy and arugula to name a few.
A lot of the benefits of these veggies come from the high sulforaphane content as a result of the breakdown of enzymes. Sulforaphane is great at promoting detox in the body, largely in part due to the upregulation of glutathione.
In addition to the great detox effect, research shows that sulforaphane plays a role in preventing cancer, healthy heart function and weight loss.
Delicious meal while detoxing? I’m sold!
Customize the dish the way you want it
So, I’ve included a couple different ways to prepare it: the quick and easy one-dish meal; and the quick and easy, slightly more effort, but more delicious two-dish meal.
Really, the veggies (and optional bacon and/or sausage) just need to be roasted in the oven until they’re cooked, but in my opinion, the real tastiness comes when you get everything with a nice crispy finish.
So, if you are making it and eating it right away, then you can get away with the one-dish option. However, if you are making a big batch to eat throughout the week, I’d recommend roasting the sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts in the oven until cooked and then when you are ready to eat, heat the veggies, sausage and raw broccoli on the stovetop until cooked (this prevents any mushiness).
The other customization with this is whether or not you add bacon (which my husband prefers over the sausage) and/or sausage. You can prepare the dish without either and serve it as a side dish, but I like to make it my main meal so I add turkey sausage as my protein. If you are going to add bacon, again I highly recommend adding the extra step of frying the bacon on the stovetop first so it’s extra crispy when you add it to the roasted veggies.
With so many options to go with, this dish is sure to please anyone!
Give it a go and let me know which way you prefer!
Ingredients:
- Brussel sprouts (approximately 2 cups)
- Broccoli (approximately 2 cups)
- Sweet potato (1 large)
- Olive oil (to coat)
- Himalayan sea salt (to taste)
- Optional: Turkey sausage and/or bacon
- Optional: chipotle mayo
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400°
- Peel and chop sweet potato into small cubes (1/2 – 1 inch)
- Place sweet potato in large roasting pan, coat with olive oil and Himalayan salt and place in oven.
- Wash and cut brussels sprouts into halves/quarters.
- Add brussels sprouts to roasting pan and toss to cover in olive oil.
- Cut bacon or turkey sausage into bite sized pieces and add to roasting pan.
- Optional (but highly recommended): to get crispy bacon, first fry on stovetop before adding to roasting pan.
- Wash and chop broccoli into small florets.
- Roast veggies until sweet potato are soft, and brussels sprouts have some browned, crispy leaves (approximately 25-35 minutes depending on how large your batch/the size of your pan).
- Once veggies are almost finished cooking, add broccoli to pan and roast for an additional 4-8 minutes until broccoli becomes tender (but not mushy).
- Garnish with Himalayan sea salt and chipotle mayo (/veganaise 😉) on the side
Okay, so those are the instructions for the one-dish meal. HOWEVER. If you want to turn this dish into a knock-out meal, I recommend the following:
- Only cook the sweet potato and brussels sprouts (and optional bacon) in the roasting pan.
- Just prior to serving, fry the sausage on the stovetop in olive oil and add roasted veggies and raw broccoli.
- Sauté until brussels, sweet potato and sausage become crispy and broccoli becomes tender.
