Brussels sprouts with bacon, parsley and hazelnuts. Carrots with honey, thyme and white pepper. Herby green salad. Classic sides!
Derived from a survey of the Harvest office that asked: name your go-to side dish if you’re asked to bring a side dish to a dinner party and you’ve left it to the last minute. Pleasingly, they amount to an excellent set of classic sides for any occasion (we’re a good lot to invite), plus each is a great option standalone. Even more pleasingly, they’re all 100% Harvest.
Brussels sprouts with bacon, parsley and hazelnuts.
The jury is out on blanching vs steaming the sprouts before you take this recipe on. Blanching offers you the benefit of salted water. Steaming offers you less chance of water accumulating in the sprouts and ruining your sauce. The steamers would argue that with the salt in the bacon and butter, one doesn’t need the salted water blanch to begin with. The blanchers, on the other hand, would argue that simply relying on the salt content of a sauce or tertiary ingredient is missing the point of seasoning entirely. Whatever your choice, you want to cut the base off, cut your spouts in half, and remove the outer leaves. Then, blanch (or steam) them to al dente, refresh and drain them.
The rest is easy. Rough chop the hazelnuts, and fine chop the parsley. Dice the bacon, and fry it off in a hot pan until it’s crispy. Remove, retaining the fat in the pan, and drain on paper towel. Add chopped hazelnuts to the pan and toast them. When they’re browning, add a couple of tablespoons of butter. When that’s foaming, add back your sprouts and bacon, and give the whole lot a toss. Then, add the chopped parsley, a little crack of pepper and a little squeeze of lemon.
Carrots with honey, thyme and white pepper.
We struggle to think of a dish that is easier than this one. It’s so simple, so nostalgic, and totally delicious. It’s perfect with any kind of fatty, salty German sausage or American sweet-spicy-smoky pulled meats. For whatever reason, the little buttery honey thyme sauce seems to elevate everything it touches. Market carrots are at their very sweetest and most nutritious right now. Thyme is kicking into its new spring growth and can be treated like a soft herb. Honey is always good.
Don’t even peel the carrots. Just cut them into fun chunks and blanch them in salted water until they’re al dente. We won’t even entertain the steaming argument for this one dish. When they’re cooked, drain them and set them aside. Put your pot back on the heat and add a tablespoon of butter, a tablespoon of honey, and a tablespoon of chopped thyme. Melt it all together and cook it out until the honey and butter are homogenised and bubbling. Add the carrots back, coat in the sauce, and season with freshly ground white pepper. Like our sprouts above, this one benefits from a little squeeze of lemon juice immediately before serving. Enjoy!
Herby Green Salad
It doesn’t get any more classic sides than a green salad. It’s a staple of the dinner party. Or the weekday family dinner, for that matter. No matter the cuisine, there will be a culturally appropriate side salad accompanying it. Now that spring is on its way, and we can start talking about herbs in earnest again, some pro tips for a herby salad were in order. Now, anyone can chop an iceberg and a cucumber, add some herbs and call it a day. If you want to take it a nudge further, here are some ideas for you.
Pick your herbs from their stems. Parsley stems have uses, but they aren’t in our delicate herb salad. Vary your textures. Cut everything chunky, and you’ve got distribution issues. Cut everything super fine, and you’ve homogeneity issues. Imagine you’ve chosen parsley, dill, chives, and mint. Finely chop the parsley (not the mint; it’ll bruise), leave the dill as fronds, cut the chives into batons, and give the mint a rough chop. Here, you’ll be able to tell each herb for what it is, and throughout the salad, you’ll get flavoursome and textural pops. Lastly, treat the idea of herbs quite loosely. Sliced radishes, celery leaves, sliced shallots, lemon zest, toasted seeds, grated horseradish… these things are all packed with flavour and can offer punchy colour, flavour and texture to any salad. Get creative!