My Favorite Vegetable: Brussel Spouts

I had to write up a recipe today to send to an aunt and I thought I might as well post it here, since I had to make my brain actually think about what my hands do when I cook. This recipe was mostly created by my husband, who has facilitated enabled my love affair with brussel sprouts and now must eat them at least once a week. I will take the credit for adding the orzo.

I make no apologies for health of said recipe, I just know it's delicious.
Here it is, as it was written for the email.

Brussel Sprouts with Orzo

Start with about 15-20 brussel sprouts. I have occasionally used more, but they may not brown as well. They can be any size, as long as they fit into a large pan.  Clean them but rinsing them, cutting off the hard bottom part, peel away the top layer (or two layers if you need to) and cut them in half, lengthwise.

Steam the brussel sprouts in a steamer basket for about 10 minutes.

I typically start a pot of water boiling for the orzo while the sprouts are steaming, and put the orzo on right before I plop the brussel sprouts in the hot pan — I think the orzo typically should cook for about 7-8 minutes, so the timing usually works out. There's no rule for how much orzo to make... I'd say probably at least a half cup, maybe a little more.

Fry a piece or two of bacon cut in pieces (like you would for salad) in some olive oil in a large pan (we use aluminum or enamel steel). When the bacon is done or close to done and the heat on the pan is fairly (medium?) high, drop the brussel sprouts into the hot olive oil cut-side down. You might need tongs for that... we've burnt ourselves cooking brussel sprouts. You want to brown the brussel sprouts so they get nice and carmel colored. If you think they're starting to stick, you can add more olive oil. At this stage, we might add a little spice to the dish — usually some red pepper flakes, coriander and ground black pepper.

After they get nice and brown, you can toss them a bit to accommodate those sprouts that may not have gotten their fair share of browning and make sure nothing it sticking too much to the pan. We use a wooden spoon when we make this. You can add olive oil if you need too.

One the sprouts are brown enough (with the heat still medium high) add about ~3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. This measurement is a guess — we kind of do it by feel and the amount of sprouts we're cooking. When you add the vinegar, it will smoke up. Make sure you toss the sprouts well and kind of scrape the pan for all of the sprouty goodness.

When the sprouts calm down and the vinegar is reduced, you can lower the heat on the pan and add a pat of butter, because who doesn't like butter? At this point, the sprouts can kind of rest if you need them to on very low heat, stirring occasionally or you can go ahead and drain and mix in the orzo.

This is a pretty forgiving dish. If we want to eat it as a meal, we might replace the bacon with Italian sausage and remove the sausage (once it's browned nicely) just before we plop the sprouts in and then put the sausage back in the pan when we mix in the orzo.

This is one of those dishes that you could do hundreds of ways and still be happy with it. It makes a nice side dish or can be the main attraction.

Update:

My husband says that the brussel spout recipe is based on this recipe from Restaurant Widow (an excellent Columbus food blog. I don't read it that much anymore because I miss the North Market too much to hear about it very often.)

Comments

[Kate]

I'm so glad you posted this b/c I've been meaning to ask you for this recipe b/c I remember you telling me it was the only way you could stomach brussel sprouts. I recently bought a whole stalk b/c it was only 3 or 4 bucks and I know they are healthy for you and I was hoping maybe my tastes had changed. But after eating them with about 4 or 5 meals (the stalk was huge), and only being able to choke them down by drowning them in mayo, I told Zack I was no longer buying brussel sprouts. He loves them of course. Maybe I'll try this, except I don't like bacon either...hmmm, have you tried it was fakin' bacon?

[Em]

Kate, I think you could probably for go the bacon and just use Olive Oil. I think the most important part is the searing and the vinegar. But in our house, bacon is sacred.