charred brussels sprouts with turmeric vinaigrette and toasted cashews

Hello, friends.

It’s been a rough week, hasn't it?

Whichever side of the political fence you find yourself on, the events of the past few days (and months, for that matter) have been pretty stressful. Which is why I’m glad Thanksgiving is just around the corner. It gives us a perfect opportunity to put our conflicts aside, gather friends and family around the table, and reflect on all that we have to be grateful for.

To help you make this Thanksgiving as stress-free as possible, I have another easy holiday recipe for you. This one is courtesy of my friend Kyle. To my mind, this is the best sort of Thanksgiving fare: the traditional roasted Brussels sprouts enlivened with a bright turmeric dressing, crunchy cashews and radishes, plus a handful of fresh herbs. It’s a beautiful combination of flavors old and new, ingredients from near and far--like America herself.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I don't normally get that excited about Thanksgiving. But this year, I’m going all out to make our celebration bright. As we sit down at the table to share and give thanks, I’ll be hoping the holiday encourages us all to extend a little extra warmth and kindness towards those who need it.

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Charred Brussels Sprouts with Turmeric Vinaigrette and Toasted Cashews

• ½ cup cashews
• ½ medium yellow onion, finely diced (about ¾ cup)
• 1 tablespoon brown mustard seeds
• 2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• ½ cup + 2 tablespoons neutral oil (we used avocado oil), divided
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 lb. brussel sprouts, cleaned, halved and patted dry
• 1 large or 2-3 small radishes, sliced into thin rounds (we used small watermelon radishes)
• Kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lime juice
• 2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, picked or roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon dill fronds, picked or roughly chopped

Preheat your oven to 350°F. 

Place the cashews on a sheet pan and toast until they smell fragrant and have a light golden color, 10-12 minutes. Transfer cashews to a plate to cool. Crank your oven to 500°F.

While the oven is heating, make the vinaigrette: place the onion in a small saucepan with the mustard seeds, turmeric and ½ cup of the neutral oil and the olive oil. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Place the Brussels sprouts on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Drizzle with the remaining 2 tablespoons neutral oil and sprinkle generously with salt. Place into oven and roast for 10-12 minutes. Take care not to overcook the sprouts. You want them cooked through and charred in spots but still bright green. Check their doneness with a fork or paring knife; you should be able to poke all the way through but still feel a tiny bit of resistance. Pull the Brussels sprouts and set aside to cool slightly. Place the sprouts in a large bowl. Add the cashews and radishes

When the dressing has cooked for 20 minutes, remove from the heat and stir in 1 teaspoon salt, the honey and lime juice. Whisk to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings. 

To serve, add ¼ cup of the cumin vinaigrette and most of the herbs to the bowl with the sprouts. Toss to combine. Taste and add more dressing if desired. Adjust seasoning to your liking. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the rest of the herbs. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe by Kyle Wisner

brussels sprout stuffing with bacon and chestnuts

I have a confession to make: I don’t love Thanksgiving. Or at least not until lately.

I adored it when I was a little girl. Thanksgiving meant the hubbub of aunts and uncles and cousins squeezed into my grandmother’s little house. Milly’s 1940s kitchen--bright red cupboards and a chocolate brown Frigidaire humming away in the corner--was home to a spectacular display of Middle-American culinary traditions. Canned yams covered with heaping spoonfuls of brown sugar and melty marshmallows. Green bean casserole with a golden crown of crispy onions. A log of cranberry jam still bearing the indentations of the can it came in. Pumpkin pie topped with ethereal clouds of Cool-Whip. In the center of it all, was a gleaming turkey my grandfather would artfully slice, the whir of the electric carver summoning everyone to the table.  

But the star of the show was my grandmother’s oyster stuffing. I’m not sure how this coastal dish entered her repertoire; she grew up on a farm in rural Illinois. But she discovered it somewhere along the line and made it her signature holiday dish. For the seafood-averse, there was Stove-Top. For the more adventurous among us, there was oyster stuffing. It was studded with celery and chopped oysters and capped with a golden, buttery crust of saltine crackers. It was delicious. 

That stuffing and the chorus of laughter and shouting tumbling out of Milly’s kitchen were Thanksgiving to me.

When I got older, Thanksgiving and I went our separate ways. My grandma passed away and the holiday wasn’t the same somehow. I moved to Paris then Brussels then Seattle and stopped making the trek back to the Midwest for the holidays. Milly was the linchpin for our family gatherings; without her big laugh and generous table, Thanksgiving wasn’t the joyous family celebration of my childhood.

But my feelings about the holiday have been changing of late. Maybe because I'm married now. Maybe because I feel settled and happy. Or maybe because I am realizing more and more that sharing a meal with the people you love is one of the finest things there is.

This stuffing is my ode to Thanksgiving. I made it using some of my favorite fall ingredients: caramelized Brussels sprouts, smoky bacon, and earthy-sweet chestnuts. There’s fresh sage, thyme and celery to ensure it has the traditional stuffing flavor Thanksgiving purists are looking for. The currants bring a burst of sweetness that balances the earthy flavors. And the egg whisked into the stock yields a silky texture under the golden-brown crust.

This savory-sweet stuffing feels very me. And the smell that filled my house while it was baking pulled me back in time to Milly’s little red kitchen and the love she put into cooking for all of us. 

I think I’ve found my signature holiday dish.

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Brussels Sprout Stuffing with Bacon and Chestnuts

• 8 cups country bread, cut into ½- to ¾-inch cubes (I used half of a loaf that weighed 1 ½ lbs.)
• 3 tablespoons currants
• ½ lb. peeled chestnuts (from about ¾ lb. unpeeled), about 1 ½ cups
• 1 ½ cups whole milk
• kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper
• 2 springs fresh thyme
• 12 oz. Brussels sprouts, cleaned and halved (yields about 3 cups)
• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 oz. bacon, cut into strips (about 6 slices)
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 4 stalks celery, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon chopped sage
• 1 tablespoon bourbon (optional)
• 3 cups chicken or turkey stock, preferably homemade, divided
• 2 large eggs

Notes:
Store-bought peeled and cooked chestnuts work well in this recipe, but they aren’t quite as sweet and delicious as fresh. Click here for instructions on peeling fresh chestnuts.

I used an 8 x 12-inch baking dish. For more golden crust and less fluffy stuffing underneath, use a 9 x 13-inch baking dish or larger. You can even bake it in a sheet pan if you are crazy about the crispy top.

Variations:
For a vegetarian version: replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock and leave out the bacon.  Add two tablespoons of butter or olive oil for sauteing the onion, celery and sage.

For a dairy-free version: replace the butter with olive oil and the milk with either unsweetened nut milk, additional stock or water.

For a gluten-free version: replace the bread with either gluten-free bread or 6 cups of cooked and cooled quinoa.

Preheat your oven to 425 with one rack in the bottom of the oven and one in the middle. Butter a baking dish and a piece of foil large enough to cover it and set both aside.  

Spread the cubed bread out on a rimmed sheet pan and cook, stirring once or twice, until completely dry, 10-15 minutes. Transfer the bread to a large mixing bowl along with the currants and set aside.

In a small saucepan, heat the chestnuts with the milk, a pinch of salt, a few grindings of black pepper and the thyme. Bring to a bare simmer and cook, covered, stirring occasionally until the chestnuts are very tender but not falling apart, about 40 minutes. If your chestnuts soak up a lot of the milk, add a bit more milk or water. If you are using store-bought, pre-cooked chestnuts, you will need to reduce the cook time. Drain the chestnuts, reserving the milk they were cooked in. When the chestnuts have cooled a bit, roughly chop them and add them to the bowl with the bread.  

Bring a medium saucepan of generously salted water to the boil. Add the Brussels sprouts and cook until just tender, 5- 7 minutes. Drain well and transfer to a parchment-lined sheet pan.  Sprinkle the Brussels sprouts with salt, drizzle with the olive oil and toss to coat. Roast on the bottom rack of the oven until soft and the edges are golden brown, about 25 minutes.  Add the sprouts to the bowl with the bread and reduce the oven temperature to 350.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and add to the bowl with the bread. Add the onion, celery and sage to the pan with the rendered bacon fat. Season with a generous pinch salt and pepper and saute until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the sautéd vegetables to the bowl with the bread. Deglaze the pan with the bourbon. Scrape up any brown bits from the pan and add to the bowl with the bread and sautéd vegetables.

In a medium bowl, combine the cooled milk from the chestnuts, 2 cups of the stock, the eggs, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Whisk to combine.  

Pour the stock and egg mixture over the bread mixture and stir gently to combine. Let the stuffing rest for a few minutes then check to see if the bread looks dry. If so, add more stock, ¼ cup at a time (you may not use it all), until the bread is very moist; you will want to see  the stock mixture pooling in the bottom of the bowl. Transfer the stuffing to your prepared baking dish. Bake on the middle rack, covered with buttered foil for 30 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to 425, remove the foil and continue to cook until the top of the stuffing is golden brown, about 15 minutes longer. Rest for 10-20 minutes before serving.

Makes 6-8 servings