Eating healthy and eating paleo doesn’t mean having to eat tasteless bland food. One of the things I enjoy the most about living paleo/primal is getting to cook again. I’ve always enjoyed cooking and since living paleo means eating and cooking with whole foods, I get to cook a lot more.
This is an adaptation of a Bobby Flay recipe I found on the Food Network. When I’m watching my carb intake and not wanting to eat a lot of starch, I omit the potatoes and double the amount of brussel sprouts. You could also substitute another root vegetable for the potatoes – I think the brussel sprouts and bacon fat would pair well with turnips or parsnips. You can also substitute the bacon for the pancetta if you can’t find it at your local grocery store.
Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta
- 3 tablespoons bacon fat
- 1/4 pound sliced pancetta, diced
- 3 shallots, thinly sliced
- 1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
- 8 small potatoes, cut into eighths
- Salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 lemon, juiced
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Remember, this dish starts on the stove top but finished in the oven, so use a pan that can do double duty for both. I prefer my trusty cast iron skillet, but a roasting pan or other oven proof pan saute pan would also work.
Heat the bacon grease over medium heat in your skillet. Add the diced pancetta and stir until nice and crispy. Remove the pancetta for later. To the pancetta crumbles and bacon grease still in the pan, add the shallots and cook just until softened. Put in the Brussels sprouts and potatoes and stir to ensure that everything gets evenly coated. Salt and pepper to taste, then pop the whole thing into the oven. Check in about 15 minutes and stir. You want the potatoes to be cooked all the way through – a knife or fork should easily pierce the flesh and the edges of the sprouts should be nicely browned. Remove from the oven and stir in the butter and lemon juice. Before serving, sprinkle the reserved pancetta over the dish for some additional crunch. And enjoy!
We served ours with lovely porterhouse steaks and a caesar’s salad, but I think this would make a great accompaniment to almost any meat. For those who usually dislike brussel sprouts for their mushy texture, let me assure you that you will love these. They completely won over my husband who usually hates brussel sprouts. Roasting the sprouts retains some of their crunch and prevents them from becoming water logged and gross.
In retrospect, I wish I had taken a picture to share, but it wasn’t until afterward, when the sprouts and steak were happily sharing a room in my belly that I realized this would make a great paleo recipe!