Mr. FBBQ said this title was too long. But he managed to make it work, didn’t he?!
I’m pretty excited for Spring! Mr. FBBQ and I attended a seminar about gardening. I wanted to attend, he was coerced. But he’s a good sport, so he went! Now that I know a little more about gardening, I’m excited to start growing my own veggies.
This dish involved multiple moving parts at once. For the whole dish, we need vegetable broth, balsamic vinagrette, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, wild rice, walnuts, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, shallots, cranberries, sea salt, and pepper. I had a heck of a time finding frozen cranberries. Found ’em at Meijer (if you have one near you-I think it’s a Midwest thing).
To start, slice and dice the sweet potatoes. Add them to the vegetable steamer and cook them until they’re soft. While the potatoes are steaming, add the balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, Dijon mustard, and cranberries to a pot and simmer them for a bit. Once the cranberries are soft, add the mixture to a blender and puree the mixture. It’ll end up being somewhat soupy. And very red.
Chop the shallots and grill them in a pan with some avocado oil.
While the potatoes are steaming, the cranberry mixture simmering, and the shallots sizzling, cook the rice in vegetable broth.
Once the sweet potatoes are soft and cooked, remove them from the vegetable steamer and add the Brussels sprouts to the steamer. Cook them until they are soft.
Once everything is done cooking, it’s time to assemble the dish. Start with the rice as a base. Top this with the sweet potatoes and the shallots.
Next, add the Brussels sprouts. Funny story about Brussels sprouts. The first time I made them I didn’t know you were supposed to cut the end off them. Needless to say, not the most successful dish that time.
Next, add the walnuts. Really you could use any type of nut you choose. The nuts added a great crunch to this dish!
Lastly, top the dish with the cranberry dressing!
This meal had such a great mix of flavors! Some sweet, nutty, tart… I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!