A small recipe message from me – a late Christmas gift, if you like – because some people hate Brussel sprouts and I have developed a few ways of using them that totally transforms them and makes them delicious.

Of course, you can mash them with all the other veggie leftovers, season and use them as topping for a shepherd’s pie or fry them as colcannon with potatoes, or bubble and squeak. Or chuck them in a veggie soup…

But then there are other options.

Prepare the Brussels by roasting them in the oven for 15 minutes, halved, (with a bit of olive oil and seasoning…) because this gets an exceptional nutty flavour from them. Or slice them up really thin – this will take away the need for roasting.

Then put a drizzle of olive oil in a pan, or a knob of plant-based butter, add the sprouts, and choose from one of the following options. They all work amazingly. Cook them through in the pan until soft and delicious. Serve piping hot. Season. Of course. It’s seasonal…

Cook the Brussels in your pan with some garlic and finely chopped onion, then add chestnuts, roasted first and then diced or broken up. Serve piping hot with a squeeze of lime juice. Add a dollop of sour cream if you need extra calories…

or…

Add to the stir-fried sprouts and garlic mixture a few broken walnuts and a big teaspoon of cranberry. A dollop of cream cheese makes a dreamy sauce with this – the vegan Boursin works well here. I’ve tried this with vegan ‘blue cheese’ or ‘shamembert’. Good!

or…

Chop and fry garlic, onions, your leftover sprouts, and cook for a few minutes, then add some miso. A big dollop of it. Let it cook down so it develops umami flavours and a bit of sticky sweetness. Really yum.

or…

Cook your sprouts, chopped onions, garlic, diced celery in your pan as above. Add a dollop of brandy at the end and cook through. This goes with anything.

or…

Add to the pan fried sprouts, onion, garlic mixture a good sprinkling of black pepper, a teaspoonful of miso and a generous glug of vodka. Cook down. So nice. Adults only.

or…

Cook the garlic and sliced sprouts as above. Add some diced fried vegan bacon, or ‘fake-on’ made from thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms or tofu ‘paper’, flavoured with liquid smoke or vegan Worcestershire sauce, then fried. Add at the end to the sprouts and garlic mixture.

or…

Cook the sprouts with onions, red or yellow peppers, any mushrooms, diced white cabbage, and when cooked, add a dash of tamari or soy sauce, lime juice, and mirin if you have some. Add a spoonful of miso and a teaspoon of maple syrup. Roasted sesame seeds or cashew nuts or squares of tofu, rolled in cornflour and fried, go on top. Serve with rice for a filling supper dish.

For a lunchtime dish, cook any of the above and add a drained tin of chick peas or butter beans and stir through. Serve with a well dressed green salad or some roasted red cabbage or beetroot, and good crusty bread.

Give these recipes a whirl if you have sprouts left over. Brussels are a great vegetable, high in fibre, minerals and antioxidants. They contain vitamins A, C, and K, potassium, calcium, iron, and magnesium. And they taste a lot better if you give them a bit of tlc.

Much better, in fact, than boiling the heck out of them so they become hard and tasteless, like bullets. That was my experience of Brussels years ago. No wonder children were put off.

My kids used to call them dragon bogies. Now they’ll eat them as sweets. Nuff said.