Nailed It! (Brussels Sprouts)

We’ve had brussels sprouts every day since I tried the ones in the restaurant and I think I’ve hit the right combination. The balsamic reduction was right from the beginning so it was just getting the brussels sprouts cooked correctly that threw me for a bit. Here’s what I did that wasn’t perfect:

1. The first time, I bought brussels sprouts in a bag at the grocery store. They were a little shriveled up and very small. I could hardly get any leaves to separate so I quartered them, removed the core, simmered them in a bit of water, drained them, tossed them with a bit of oil and then cooked them in the convection oven (just a setting on my regular oven). These were too mushy and not really crunchy.
2. I was able to get bigger, more plump brussels sprouts, also in a bag, at Walmart. I cut the stem end off and the leaves fell right off. Once I got most of the leaves off, I cut more of the stem end off and was able to get more leaves off. I tossed these with a bit of salt and pepper, and olive oil and put them in the air fryer. Since the leaves were a bit bitter, they got brown before they got real tender but they were crunchy.

Last night, I hit on the right combination. Using the bigger brussels sprouts, I cut the core end off, removed the leaves. These are the larger, thicker leaves. I put those in a separate bowl. Then I cut more of the stem end off and removed the smaller, more tender leaves and put those in a different bowl. The leaves from the first bowl (thicker leaves) went into the steamer for about 3 minutes. I drained those really well on paper towels, combined them with the second bowl of tender leaves, tossed with salt, pepper and olive oil. I was going to use the air fryer but had something else in the oven on convection so I stuck them in there. Got busy and let them cook a minute or two longer than I should have but we both loved them. They were crunchy!

Brussels Sprouts Chips

The balsamic reduction is simply balsamic (I used raspberry) with a bit of honey, cooked down til it’s the texture of a thick syrup (think . . chocolate syrup). That syrup was drizzled over the warm sprouts and then the goat cheese was crumbled on top.

Toasted walnuts, pine nuts, pecans or almonds could be added. Crumbled bacon could be added. Bleu cheese or feta could be added instead of the goat cheese.

I paid about $2.50 for the bag of brussels sprouts at Walmart and didn’t use probably 1/4 of the bag.

We won’t continue to have this every day but we will be having it often. It’s easy, fairly inexpensive and should be pretty healthy.