Lemon Roasted Brussels Sprouts- A Recipe for Comfort and Resilience through Challenging Times.

Brussels sprouts often get a bad rap, but this recipe will leave your guests wanting more and even asking for the recipe! With a few clever additions—lemon to brighten the taste and honey to balance out any bitterness—these gnarly, sweet, sticky, and zesty sprouts make the perfect side dish or even the star ingredient when mixed into a salad.

How they came about (Thanks Jamie):

This recipe was born from a happy accident! Inspired by a Jamie Oliver roast chicken recipe that calls for a whole lemon to be boiled and then roasted inside a chicken. Once the Chicken was done, I found myself with a beautifully cooked lemon. Not wanting to waste it, I sliced it in half and added it to the tray that the Brussels Sprouts were roasting in. To my delight, the caramelized, sticky pulp blended beautifully with the sprouts, adding the perfect balance of sweetness and tang. And just like that, “Lemony Brussels Sprouts” was born! Thanks, Jamie—I’m a massive groupie!

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 35-45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 packet frozen Brussels sprouts (frozen works best)
1 lemon, halved, skin washed
Olive oil (enough to coat the sprouts)
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste (approximately one teaspoon of salt and one-two cracks of pepper -adjust accordingly depending on the side of the spouts packet)
Honey (enough to drizzle over the top of the sprouts and lemon halves)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180°C (fan-forced).
Spread the frozen Brussels sprouts onto a baking tray.
Place the lemon halves cut side up among the sprouts so that it can caramelize well.
Drizzle the sprouts and lemon generously with olive oil, ensuring everything is well coated.
Season with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Drizzle honey over the sprouts and lemon halves, ensuring the top is lightly coated.
Roast for 35-45 minutes, or until the sprouts are golden brown with slightly blackened edges. Check on it at 20 minutes and mix the sprouts around a little to ensure all sides are being caramelized well.** Tip: The Lemons caramelize best when face up so try not to flip them over when mixing.
Remove from the oven. While hot, using a spoon, scoop out the softened lemon pulp, discarding any seeds.
Mix the lemon pulp with the sprouts, stirring everything together to distribute the flavors.
Serve hot or at room temperature.

Versatility:

This dish works beautifully as a side dish or a salad. It can be mixed into quinoa or couscous and eaten hot or at room temperature. The lemon, honey and olive oil act as a self saucing-dressing. It’s no fuss cooking that’s healthy and delicious-my absolute favorite!

Add-On: Techina Dressing

For an extra layer of flavor, whip up this quick dressing:

3 tablespoons raw tahini
1 tablespoon water (adjust for consistency -it should be runny but not watery)
The juice of half a small lemon.
1 teaspoon honey, thick balsamic glaze (comes in a small squeeze bottle) or Pomegranate molasses.
1 clove roasted garlic, pressed

Mix all ingredients until smooth, and drizzle over the sprouts before serving and enjoy!

If you enjoyed this recipe please let me know! https://www.instagram.com/ivoryinteriors_elisebloom/

I was going to end this recipe with, “When life gives you lemons… roast them and make them into something delicious!” because when I began writing this, I was hoping to distract myself with something pleasant and light-hearted. I know a lot of you can relate to this sentiment. But as I finished, it became clear—this is not the time for disingenuous or generic statements. We cannot distract ourselves by ignoring our lived reality. We need to acknowledge it and keep going anyway.

We have now been at war for over 500 days. As a nation, we have just buried two little children, their mother, and an elderly peace activist (it is physically sickening to type these words; as a people, we are heartbroken and outraged), along with countless soldiers and innocent civilians (may their memory be a blessing)—all murdered by terrorists who reside side-by side with us.

I could not simply post a Brussels sprouts recipe and carry on with my day without acknowledging this immense loss. Families have been torn apart. We are all hurting. That is fact.

What’s equally abhorrent is how few people in my industry are calling this out. I watch my fellow design professionals outside of Israel gloss over the topic, refusing to acknowledge it. People who are meant to be sensitive and intelligent are proving to be neither when it comes to our-Jewish suffering, with the exception of very few. There were black squares all over their social feeds when BLM was trending, but now? No orange squares, only silence. That selective outrage—I can’t let it go unmentioned.

So instead of pretending we’re in a different place and time, or maybe in another country—where a hollow motivational phrase might pass without seeming tone-deaf—I choose to acknowledge what we are all going through. Because as an Israeli Designer and a human with a clear moral compass, that feels like the only right thing to do. And yet, even as I write this, I still wonder: How is a Brussels sprouts recipe relevant? How is any creative work relevant in the face of so much suffering?

But maybe that very question—“How is this relevant?”—also holds the answer itself.

As a creative professional, I find recipe development to be a refreshing outlet—one that allows for spontaneity, unlike the meticulous precision my work demands. In interior design, every detail requires careful planning and execution to achieve a seamless, harmonious result. Cooking, by contrast, offers an almost-immediate sense of gratification. Yet, at their core, both design and cooking share the same purpose: to transform the everyday into something extraordinary, and I get a deep sense of satisfaction out of both.

Over the past 500-plus days, engaging in creative work has felt difficult—paralyzing, even. Not for lack of wanting to, but because interior detailing and creativity requires immense focus. This has often felt meaningless—or even disrespectful—while horror unfolds around us. At times, it’s been nearly impossible to dig deep and find joy, optimism and focus when sadness and fear sit so heavily and it’s that joy and optimism that I use to design my interiors projects. Even as I write this, I feel like a recipe post in light of the sadness of the week that’s passed feels trivial despite this acknowledgment- and I’m quite sure that this is what those who seek our destruction ultimately want. Our death, but before that, our paralysis.

A tray of Brussels sprouts however is easier to whip up than a high-end interior- I think we could all agree on that! So, throughout these past 500 days, I have often turned to my recipes for comfort, to break my creative paralysis. In many ways, this is my way of reclaiming creativity—of refusing to let grief steal everything, and it’s stolen a lot.

I believe that despite the horrors we’ve witnessed since October 7th, these things—our homes, our food, our traditions—are still worth sharing. Because ultimately, that is what we are fighting for: our land, our homes, and our ability to live peacefully in them. To eat and enjoy.

That most basic of human rights—to gather around a table, to share a meal with joy and abundance—has been stolen from the innocent people who terrorists took hostage and killed. In many ways, it has also been taken from us, as we sit with the pain, knowing our brothers and sisters are suffering in the tunnels of Gaza against their will and in many cases being starved. But even in the darkest of times, sparks of light remain. We must hold onto them so that when, please God, everyone is brought home, there will still be something left to enjoy.

Speaking from personal experience, there is nothing like attending the funeral of a 19-year-old soldier—killed by terrorists while fighting to defend our right to live here —to remind me that we better live here –Actually LIVE, not just exist and we better bloody live here well! Otherwise what’s the point?

So whether that means designing beautiful interiors or simply sharing a beloved Brussels Sprouts recipe, I will try my best to continue forward and live well. This is my small protest. My way of saying: Am Yisrael Chai in response to this unthinkable pain.

I truly hope this recipe brings you a small spark of joy, just as it does for me. And if you are waiting for someone to be brought home, my deepest hope is that very soon, you can enjoy it with them too.

This post is dedicated to the memory of Shiri, Ariel (4yo), and Kfir (9mo) Bibas; to Hersh Goldberg-Polin; to Daniel Perez; to the 1,200 innocent civilians murdered on October 7th; to the 960 soldiers and police officers killed since; and to the 251 hostages taken—75 of whom have been murdered (of blessed memory). May your families and friends find comfort amongst the people of Israel. And to the 147 hostages who have come back to us alive—may you heal and go on to live happy successful lives and may all of the remaining hostages both alive and deceased be brought home soon!

May we all know better, more peaceful days.

#jamieoliver #israelatwar #interiordesign #luxuryinteriors