Sweet Potato and Brussel Sprouts With Bacon

As you could have guessed, I’ve been reuniting with a lot of things around here since I’ve been home, things like my own bed, Tivo, and bacon. Yes, bacon. I can’t believe it’s been over 4 months since I’ve cooked with bacon; I could feel Jessica’s heart breaking the whole time. The reason I didn’t buy bacon sooner is because I like to keep it in the freezer and my mini-fridge’s freezer was never that good. I learned from Food Network that if you keep bacon in the freezer, you can take it out, cut off the amount you need, and stick it back in and keep it like that for months! Genius, right? Because we all would like to believe that if we bought bacon we’d “eat 2 strips to satisfy the craving and then the rest would just go bad.” A likely story.

Now that I’ve gushed about bacon for too long, I’ll just say that, besides bacon, I love sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts, and combining them all in one pan is a recipe for comfort.

Sweet Potato and Brussel Sprouts With Bacon

Ingredients:

• 4 strips smoked bacon, diced*
• 1 small sweet potato, cooked and cubed
• 1/2 halved and cooked brussel sprouts
• 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

*You could make this recipe vegetarian by using a tempeh bacon or other bacon substitute. However, since those tend to be less fatty, add about a tablespoon of cooking oil in with the vegetables.

Heat a pan at medium over a burner. Add in the diced bacon once it has come to temperature and par-cook the bacon until it slightly browning but still flimsy.

Next, add in the brussel sprouts, sweet potato chunks, and soy sauce. You can cook these in the microwave or use them leftover from another meal(I steamed mine in a microwave).

Continue stirring the pan every few minutes until the fat has been absorbed and the edges start to brown/burn. Note: A little burning adds flavor into your dish. A lot of burning adds firemen into your kitchen. Serve hot.

There’s something great about eating a food you love. There’s something amazing about eating all the foods you love and their flavors come together. This is sweet, smoky, savory, and wholly comforting. Now someone please hide the bacon from me for the next month.