WANT YOUR KID TO EAT BRUSSELS SPROUTS? ROAST THEM! And how often do you hear your spouse crowing over how delicious the Brussels sprouts are?
It’s the power of roast: high heat and the complex flavors it creates.
The method follows the same basic rationale as for broccoli, but the Brussels sprout is a dense vegetable with relatively little surface area. So, while you can roast whole Brussels sprouts with fine results, I like to halve or quarter them—more surface area means more browning, and therefore more flavor. (The downside is that you lose a lot of exterior leaves, so if you’re short on sprouts, roast them whole, giving them about 15 more minutes till they’re tender. And by tender I mean that when you insert a paring knife into one, the sprout offers no resistance.)
These are fabulous cooked with bacon fat and bacon, my favorite way to roast them. Or they can be finished with a little olive oil or butter, salt, and pepper, which is how I typically serve them. But if you want to take the dish to another level, dress them with a nutty vinaigrette. In his book Live to Cook, my friend and colleague Michael Symon included a fantastic recipe for deep-fried Brussels sprouts tossed with a walnut vinaigrette. If you want to try this, combine 1 tablespoon minced shallots with 2 tablespoons good red wine vinegar, add a pinch of kosher salt and let it sit for a few minutes, and stir in ¼ cup/60 milliliters walnut or vegetable oil and some toasted chopped walnuts. Even easier, you could simply sprinkle the roasted sprouts with a bit of red wine vinegar just before serving—a pungent vegetable benefits from the acidity.