Brussel Sprout Vegetable Crisps

It's autumn!  Winter is fast approaching, the clocks have already gone back, and the most wonderful vegetable is in season!

Brussels sprouts!  YUM!

Typically, they are the staple of roast dinners across the country, but when you love them as much as I do, you're got to wonder, can I get away with having sprouts for lunch too?

Answer, yes you can!  Put that packet of Walkers crisps away and make yourself some moreish vegetable crisps!

Deliciously moreish home-made vegetable crisps!

Vegetable crisps have been gaining popularity in recent years, but they're really easy to make at home and much more cost effective.  Not to mention tastier! (In my humble opinion of course.)

Here we go: you will need the following; Brussels sprouts (obviously, nothing happening without those), olive oil, lemon juice, and salt.

As I mentioned earlier, Brussels are in season so buying them fresh is the way to go.  I've found this doesn't work great with defrosted frozen sprouts - keep it seasonal whenever you can for a better taste.

I'm only making enough vegetable crisps for a snack, but you can make as many as you like. Go nuts!

Three large fresh Brussels sprouts

Line a baking tray with foil.  Select your sprouts, peel off the leaves and scatter them on the tray.  They will shrink and shrivel and bit so don't worry about crowding them too much.  If you're doing tons however, do consider a second tray.  Peel off as many of the leaves as you can until you get down to the smallest (and stubborn) leaves.

Next brush on some olive oil.  The oil will prevent the leaves from burning too much.  Pour a little into a tumbler or shallow dish, and use a brush to apply.  If you don't have a suitable brush, no worries, just dab your fingertips in the oil and gently rub over the leaves.  (I trust you to wash your hands prior to cooking anything.) No need to drench them in oil, just brush lightly over both sides and along the edges.

Gently brush olive oil over the sprout leaves

Heat an oven to 200 Celsius (or 400 Farenheit if that's what you work with) and pop the tray in.  A word of warning - they can burn pretty quickly, so don't wander off!  Keep a close eye on them.  I tend to time them for 5 minutes then check on them; give them a shake up to turn them over and pop them back in for 2 or 3 minutes.

After they've been in the oven for about 8 minutes in total (shouldn't take any longer than 10 minutes maximum), pull them out.  Drizzle some lemon juice over them (if you have fresh lemons that 's great, but bottled juice works just fine) and give them a shake or stir them up with your fingers to coat them with the juice.  Shake a little salt over the crisps and you're done!

I used three large fresh Brussels sprouts and produced enough to comfortably fill my little bento lunch pot (60ml volume).  I could have got away with four without having to squash them in too much.

Three sprouts were enough for a small pots' worth - a nice little lunch snack

If you can avoid scoffing the lot soon after they're ready, these make nice little additions to your bento - just pop them into a small container so they don't get crushed.

Oops

Like I said ... if they last that long.