Chorizo-Feta-Rosenkohl-Auflauf (chorizo, feta and Brussels sprout bake)
Halved Brussels sprouts roasted hard until their cut faces char before anything else joins them, then finished in the oven with chorizo and crumbled feta, the smoky paprika oil from the chorizo basting the sprouts as it bakes. Roasting the sprouts cut-side down first is what gives them real char instead of the boiled-cabbage flavour raw-roasted sprouts can fall into.
Prep20 min
Cook35 min
Oven210°C
Servings4
Christoph's roasted Brussels sprouts with chorizo and feta, the sprouts roasted cut-side down first for real char rather than a boiled-cabbage flavour.
Ingredients
Units
Temperature
Servings
Bake
- 600 g Brussels sprouts, trimmed, halved through the core rounded
- 40 ml olive oil rounded
- to taste fine salt rounded
- 200 g cooking chorizo, sliced into rounds rounded
- 150 g feta, crumbled rounded
- 1 lemon, zest and a squeeze of juice (optional) rounded
Method
- Heat the oven to 210°C. Toss the halved sprouts with the olive oil and a good pinch of salt, then arrange cut-side down in a single layer on a baking sheet, not crowded.
- Roast 20 minutes without turning them, until the cut faces are deeply charred in spots. Resist checking too often; the char builds while they sit undisturbed.
- Scatter the chorizo slices over the sprouts. Roast a further 10 minutes, until the chorizo has released its paprika-red oil, which bastes the sprouts as it renders.
- Scatter the crumbled feta over the top. Roast a final 5 minutes, just until the feta softens and takes on a little colour at the edges.
- Grate a little lemon zest over and add a squeeze of juice, if using, to cut through the richness. Serve straight from the tray.
Notes
- Roast the sprouts cut-side down and leave them undisturbed for the full 20 minutes. This is what gives them a genuine char rather than the flat, slightly boiled flavour sprouts get when tossed and turned too often in the oven.
- The chorizo needs no oil of its own. It renders a good amount of paprika-red fat as it roasts, which is what flavours the sprouts underneath; do not add extra oil when it goes in.
- Add the feta near the end, not at the start. A long roast dries it out and toughens it; the last few minutes is enough to soften it without turning it rubbery.
- This does not keep or reheat especially well, since both the char on the sprouts and the texture of the feta suffer; it is best eaten straight from the oven.
Ingredient substitutions
- Cooking chorizo should be the fresh, raw kind meant for cooking, not the cured, ready-to-eat kind, which behaves very differently in the oven.
- Feta can be a firm goat’s cheese for a milder, creamier finish.
- A handful of toasted walnuts scattered on at the end adds a good crunch alongside the char and cheese.
From Christoph Mayer