This roasted brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes recipe is a perfect addition to your holiday table. A simple and delicious side dish, its easy enough for a weeknight dinner and pretty enough for fancy holiday meals.
The side dishes are always my favorite part of any holiday dinner. Of course, I love a beautifully dressed turkey or holiday ham with dijon mustard, but the perfect side dish is what I start planning months in advance. The savory stuffing, the tangy sweet cranberries, the hot buttered rolls... this is the stuff that dreams are made of!
Roasted veggies are a mainstay of our thanksgiving menu. This veggie combination is pretty, delicious, and a great complement to any main dish. The earthy deep flavor of tender sweet potatoes and the nutty sweet flavor of brussels sprouts are a perfect pair. The best part is that this recipe is super simple, can be prepared in advance, and requires almost no attention while it bakes, leaving you to focus on your other holiday dishes.
This side dish is so good, I guarantee you won't want to eat it only on the holidays. Good thing that roasted sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts are a great base for a ton of easy meals! Add some chicken sausage to this sheet pan, and call it dinner. Mix it with some cooked ancient grains, put some creamy goat cheese on top and call it a lunch bowl. I've even been known to drizzle a little maple syrup on this, crumble in some crispy bacon, put a fried egg on top and call it breakfast hash. The possibilities are endless.
Jump to:
You Will Love This
- A perfect simple addition to your holiday table or weeknight meal.
- A versatile dish that is a great base for many healthy dinners.
- Roasted vegetables are full of health benefits! Fiber, vitamins, nutrients... all good-for-you stuff.
- This is a gluten-free recipe, making it great for a large holiday gathering with folks who have different dietary needs.
Ingredients
Gather up your ingredients. For this simple dish you will need:
- Brussels sprouts
- Sweet potatoes
- Extra virgin olive oil: You can use any neutral cooking oil that you like and have on hand.
- Salt and black pepper: Use fine sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper for this recipe.
Make it your own!
This is a really great base dish for customizing. Add more flavor with a squeeze of lemon juice or a drizzle of balsamic glaze after baking. Spice is up with some red onion or cloves of garlic. Or even add other fresh vegetables, like broccoli florets or green beans.
Instructions
Step One: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Trim and halve the brussels sprouts. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into uniform bite-sized pieces (approximately ½ inch across).
Step Two: Arrange the veggies in a single layer on a large sheet pan, and drizzle olive oil generously over the top. Use your hands or spoon to gently move the veggies around to get them coated in the oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the veggies.
TIP: Put the brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes on separate sides of the pan. Sometimes the sprouts will cook faster than the sweet potatoes, depending on their size. If they are separate you can easily remove the sprouts to a small bowl and give the sweet potatoes another few minutes in the oven.
Step Three: Put the sheet pan on the center rack of the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. Give the sheet pan a little shake halfway through baking to help the veggies brown evenly. Watch the brussels sprouts, and feel free to remove them from the pan and give the sweet potatoes a few more minutes to cook if needed. The veggies are done when they are tender and golden brown, with darker caramelized pieces.
How to Trim Brussels Sprouts
Properly trimming brussels sprouts takes a bit of time, but it makes a huge difference in taking this veggie from the stuff of kid nightmares to completely craveable and delicious. There are three steps to trimming brussels sprouts for this recipe:
- Cut off the hard portion at the bottom of each sprout where the sprout was attached to the plant.
- Look over the outside of each sprout, and remove any leaves that are damaged, brown or dried out. The outer layer of leaves often needs to be removed, and you will see a much nicer layer underneath.
- Put the cut end of the sprout on the cutting board and halve each sprout lengthwise through the core.
For a great tutorial on preparing brussels sprouts, check out this guide.
Prep Ahead
If you are preparing this ahead, trim and peel the veggies and put them in separate airtight containers in the refrigerator. You can prepare them up to a couple of days in advance. Don't prepare them too much further ahead than that, as both sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts can dry out fairly quickly after they are cut.
Recipe
Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 pound sweet potatoes about 2 medium potatoes
- 1 pound brussels sprouts
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Freshly ground salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Trim and halve the brussels sprouts. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into uniform bite-sized pieces (approximately ½ inch across).
- Arrange the veggies in a single layer on a large sheet pan, and drizzle olive oil generously over the top. Use your hands or spoon to gently move the veggies around to get them coated in the oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the veggies.
- Put the sheet pan on the center rack of the oven and bake for about 25 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender and golden brown. Give the sheet pan a little shake halfway through baking to help the veggies brown evenly.
Tony
Great recipe. We eat this all the time!