How to - Brussels Sprouts

The stigma...."Eat your brussels sprouts, they're good for you..."  Yes, they are...but the are NOT the gross, inedible veggies that some people make them out to be.  Actually they are one of our favorites!  They are CRAZY versatile and pair well with just about everything!  

My Mom never really cooked them for us as children, so I would say I "discovered" them, in my 20s, when searching for some alternative recipes for a Thanksgiving Dinner I was hosting for some friends.  I read somewhere that Maple Syrup neutralized the bitterness and thought I would try that.  So I chopped up some bacon, cooked it off and threw in some roughly chopped brussels sprouts and a small drizzle of maple syrup!  Dynamite and simple!  So good that it became a regular dish for me.  I remember fixing them this way for my family when my Dad begrudgingly allowed me to cook dinner for the family on Christmas Eve many years back.  My two nieces who were young, maybe 10 or 12, ate them and loved them and their Mom began fixing them like this too.

But now, we roast them, we use them in salads, we sauté them - raw or cooked they are fabulous!

For those of you who cook Brussels Sprouts regularly....this will be obvious, but I get a lot of questions about how to clean and cut a Brussels Sprout...so here you go!

Rinse well.

Cut the bottom off, where the stem hold the leaves together.  The outer leaves usually fall right off, but if not, peel just the outer leaves off.

Slice in half for roasting.  Slice in 4s for sautéing (in my opinion).  Or shred in a food processors for salads.   I usually rinse again at this point, even though they are NOT generally a dirty veggie!

I will get a shredded pic up asap!  Hope this helps!