Brussels Sprouts Gratin

Delicious Syn Free Brussels Sprouts Gratin - shredded garlic sauteed Brussels, with the delicious flavours of smokey bacon and a golden melted parmesan cheese topping. A perfect side dish for the whole family.

Long gone are the days were the only time you were served Brussels sprouts were overboiled and bitter. It's no wonder most of us hated them as a child, right?

I was definitely in the hate category, I couldn't think of anything worse than some of those on my plate for dinner Christmas day. Not even a delicious gravy would discuss those things.

That was of course until I ventured into the world of cooking for myself, where I taught myself the best to cook certain foods. I by no means claim to be an expert or chef. I just try to create delicious home cooked meals that are suitable for the whole family.

The first time I actually enjoyed Brussels sprouts was actually raw in a salad. They add a lovely crunch and are a perfect substitute for regular green lettuce, which can tend to be a bit boring and uninspiring. I love salads with various different textures or crunch, sweet and savoury.

Not only raw in salads, but Brussels is also delicious just lightly sauteed with garlic and seasoning in a stir-fry.

They make a great side dish too with some mashed potatoes and a casserole or stew. I love these Sauteed Garlic Shredded Brussel Sprouts with this Perfect Syn Free Sweet Potato Mash and Slow Cooked Sweet Onion Braised Beef. It's one of my favourite comfort dishes and is lovely by the kids too.

So when planning Christmas dinner this year, I really wanted to go that little bit further than the usual sauteed Brussels Sprouts, something decadent that even the kids would enjoy and hopefully wouldn't put the kids off Brussels Sprouts for life.

The kids love bacon and that is just a definite addition to Brussels Sprouts on Christmas day, there is nothing that can beat that yummy smokiness of bacon with sauteed Brussel sprouts. But then I had the idea to add some cheese and well you know what came next. This AMAZING Syn Free Brussels Sprout Gratin with a delicious melted parmesan cheese topping - yum!!

This was seriously so good, that I could literally eat a dish of this Brussels Sprouts Gratin on its own. It's going to be a regular dish whenever Brussels Sprouts are available.

You may be wondering, hey it's not Christmas yet, why are you making this so early?

Let me confess to a little secret. I no longer cook a big dinner Christmas day. The last couple of years we have enjoyed a big cooked Christmas dinner either before or just after Christmas, that way it frees up Christmas day to enjoy it with the family and spend time with the kids.

I just found that cooking dinner Christmas day took up too much of my time cooking and then, of course, there is the mess afterwards, plus the kids are far too excited and really don't have much of an appetite either, so it just seems wasted to put all that effort in when they will enjoy it much more on another day.

Instead we now just had a platter of picky things, super quick to put out and clear up and much more enjoyable on Christmas day.

It's not something I plan to do forever, but while the kids are still young, it's what we prefer.

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So we actually enjoyed this Brussels Sprouts Gratin two days ago with all the trimmings and boy was it amazing.

On the dinner plate was the following:

• Slow Cooked Chicken
• Syn Free Roast Potatoes
• 1 Syn Yorkshire Puddings
• Syn Free Gravy
• Maple Glazed Carrots (and Parsnips)
• Low Syn Sausage, Sage, Onion Quinoa Stuffing

and lastly the Brussels Sprouts Gratin - everyone's plate was cleared, in fact some went back for seconds.

Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my FULL RECIPE INDEX where you will find over 500+ delicious Slimming World recipes to choose from and all are searchable by syn value, meal type, ingredients etc.

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The bacon part of this dish is totally up to you, use some syn free bacon with fat removed, or if you want to treat yourself Christmas day, use some streaky bacon and syn it. It's Christmas after all and for the small amount you are adding to the top, the syns are not actually that bad when divided up.

The parmesan is part of your Healthy Extra A choice, so if you do use syn free bacon a serving of this Brussels Sprouts Gratin is syn free.

WHAT KITCHEN ITEMS DO I NEED TO MAKE THIS BRUSSELS SPROUTS GRATIN?

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