Ah, Brussels sprouts! Those loved — or hated — fall-time morsels. If you love Brussels sprouts, this Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pecans and Sugar-Free Maple Syrup recipe is a no-brainer and will immediately become an essential part of your keto side dish repertoire.

If Brussels sprouts are not your cup of tea, I challenge you to try this dish — you might become a real friend of Brussels sprouts after tasting this enormously tasty side that bursts different textures and flavors!

How to make Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pecans and Sugar-Free Maple Syrup

There are only 5 ingredients in this fabulously flavorful dish: (those obvious) Brussels sprouts, unrefined sea salt, extra-virgin olive oil, pecans, and sugar-free maple syrup.

If you cannot find sugar-free maple syrup, you can make your own. I have a wonderful 3-ingredient recipe in my Low-Sugar, So Simple book. Alternatively, you can add a few drops of maple-flavored stevia drops.

So, to make this dish, you first roast the Brussels sprouts seasoned with olive oil and salt. While the veggies are roasting, you’ll toast some pecans on a dry skillet. Finally, you’ll mix everything together (Brussels sprouts, toasted pecans, and sugar-free maple syrup) and dig in!

Let’s take a better step-by-step look at how to prepare this wonderful side dish:

Take 2 lbs (910 g) of Brussels sprouts.

Remove the stems from the Brussels sprouts.

Remove also the outer leaves.

Place the Brussels sprouts into a bowl.

Add about 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil…

…and 1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) unrefined sea salt.

Toss well.

Transfer the Brussels sprouts to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

Roast at 400 °F (200 °C) for about 15 minutes, or until the Brussels sprouts are crisp-tender and have got some color.

While the Brussels sprouts are roasting, heat a skillet over high heat.

Add 1 cup (240 ml) of pecans to the skillet.

Toast the pecans for about 5 minutes, or until they have got some color. Don’t let burn! Set aside.

Now, your Brussels sprouts should be perfectly roasted. Remove them from the oven.

Transfer the Brussels sprouts carefully into a heatproof bowl.

Add the toasted pecans.

Finally, add about 1/4 cup (60 ml) of sugar-free maple syrup. This stuff is good…

…so is this brand. I will use it now.

Here we go.

Toss again well.

Serve immediately.

Yum!

How I came up with this easy keto side recipe

A large Finnish grocery chain sends me their newsletter with their offers each week. They also have some recipes and meal suggestions in those newsletters. The recipes are typical high-carb recipes with seed oils, grains, and other difficult-to-digest ingredients. Sometimes, they have good ideas, though.

Last week, they had a recipe for roasted Brussels sprouts. They had combined apples with Brussels sprouts and roasted them in the oven. Naturally, they were using unnatural fats and some other non-clean-keto ingredients, but the idea of roasted Brussels sprouts was fascinating, so I wanted to make a low-carb — or even keto — version of that.

But pure roasted Brussels sprouts sounded lame. I wanted more taste and texture! Since I was after a crunch, I decided to add nuts to my Brussels sprouts dish. But which nuts? Toasted pecans! Now, that sounded delicious!

For more flavor, I opted for sugar-free Maple syrup that I had ordered from the US. Sugar-free maple syrup should lend luscious sweetness to my dish, and if I added some salt, too, the combination of sweet and salty flavors would pamper the palate, I mused.

Naturally, I needed some fat for roasting the Brussels sprouts. I decided to use extra-virgin olive oil. By the way, do you know that according to the newest studies, extra-virgin olive oil is the best oil for cooking? Yes, it is!

There is a study that compared the ten most used cooking oils, and extra-virgin olive oil proved to be the best since it releases the least amount of polar compounds (these are highly toxic). Canola oil and sunflower oil (among the other omega-6-rich seed oils) were the worst. In fact, they are so poisonous that you should discard them immediately from your pantry and never ever use them for cooking! Well, I bet you know this already since you are reading my blog and are familiar with clean keto, but the inferiority of the seed oils was once again proven. So, another good reason to stay away from them!

Now, I had all my 5 ingredients. Next, I did some mental arithmetic and calculated the needed measures in my mind.

I decided to use one pound (450 g) of Brussels sprouts, 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt, and 1/2 cup (120 ml) pecans. After cleaning the Brussels sprouts and adding the olive oil, I saw that one pound of Brussels sprouts was far too little, so I decided to double the amount. I also opted for doubling the pecans now when I had doubled the Brussels sprouts.

With these measures, my experiment turned out super delicious. As I had hoped, different textures and flavors were bursting in my mouth — in the right amounts. Nothing was overpowering, but each ingredient was complementing the other. Marvelous!

I have to admit that the dish was so good that I overate and couldn’t sleep well because my stomach was that full! In any case, I recommend you prepare this dish — you might get surprised by how delicious dishes you can make with Brussels sprouts!

Here’s the recipe for you to enjoy:

5-Ingredient Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pecans and Sugar-Free Maple Syrup

Yield: 6

Ingredients

2 lbs = 910 g Brussels sprouts
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) unrefined sea salt
1 cup = 240 ml pecans
1/4 cup = 60 ml sugar-free maple syrup

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C).
Remove the stems and outer leaves from the Brussels sprouts.
Place the Brussels sprouts into a bowl.
Add the olive oil and salt. Toss well.
Transfer the Brussels sprouts on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Roast in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, or until the Brussels sprouts are crisp-tender and have got some color.
While the Brussels sprouts are roasting, toast the pecans in a dry skillet over high heat, for about 5 minutes. Don’t let burn!
Combine the roasted Brussels sprouts, pecans, and the sugar-free maple syrup in a bowl. Toss well.
Serve immediately as a delicious side.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases - without any extra costs for you.

Nutrition information	In total	Per serving if 6 servings in total
Protein	35.9 g	6.0 g
Fat	110.5 g	18.4 g
Net carbs	32.2 g	5.4 g
kcal	1345 kcal	224 kcal

Tips for variations

If your carb quota allows, add one or two sour apples and roast them with Brussels sprouts. For lower carbs, use jicama.

Another way to get even more flavor to this dish is to roast wedged yellow onion or chopped leek with Brussels sprouts.

You might guess that I naturally suggest adding some bacon to your dish. Not only bacon tastes great, but salty bacon also complements the sweet maple syrup in the most scrumptious way!

Instead of pecans, feel free to use slivered almonds, almond flakes, pumpkin seeds, halved macadamias, or walnuts.

If you avoid sweeteners, use natural maple flavoring instead of sugar-free maple syrup.

Still not willing to try Brussels sprouts? In that case, replace them with an equal amount of green beans, broccoli florets, or cauliflower florets. By the way, I have numerous keto side dish recipes — feel free to pick your favorites!

General prattling

This week was again busy, but things went smoothly. However, some weird things were happening. Well, at least one weird thing. Namely, the Finnish Food Authority came to the decision to prohibit using the word “keto” in food products or their marketing.

Can you imagine? So, from this week onwards, you are not allowed to market anything as keto or use the word “keto” in products! The Food Authority claims that there is not enough evidence to define a keto diet, and it’s not specified in a feasible way. Or, there is not enough scientific evidence about keto and its benefits.

Well, dear Finnish Food Authority, give me a diet that would be better defined than a keto diet. Yes, I knew you couldn’t give me any since there is none. In fact, the keto diet is really easy to define: you eat such food that your body goes into a metabolic state called ketosis. Even the ratio of the macronutrients is clearly defined for a keto diet. That’s it! So simple. So, don’t you dare fool people with your deadly seed oils, life-threatening amount of carbs, and inferior processed fake meat.

My dear reader, if you want to support me in my fight against the corrupted madness of the Finnish Food Authority, feel free to say your word and email them: [email protected].

Spread the word and act accordingly — your country might be the next one on the list to make keto illegal!

Besides getting mad with the Finnish Food Authority, I was cooking and baking a lot. Yesterday, there was a keto (Oops! The illegal word in Finland!) festival in the bistro downtown here in Tampere. I was presenting our Ketokamu (I did it again!) products, and I naturally offered some keto (Just cannot avoid it!) baked goods there.

Earlier this week, I baked two Keto (I say nothing now…) Mega Bagels with my Ketokamu ([Insert your favorite emoji here]) baking mix and filled one with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and chives and the other one with cream cheese, lettuce, ham, and cheese. So simple, yet so good! Mmmh!