Brussels sprouts are named after Belgium’s capital, Brussels, where it is believed that the sprouts were first cultivated. They are characterized by leafy green buds which look a lot like miniaturized cabbages. They taste like cabbages, but have a slightly more delicate flavor and a much thicker texture.
Sprouts may be boiled, steamed, or tossed into a salad. Steaming is the best way to cook sprouts because it locks in the flavor, color, and nutrients.
You can steam the sprouts by either placing them in a pot filled with about an inch of water or by using a vegetable steamer.
Brussels sprouts are rich in protein and in vitamins A and C. They also have “indoles” which are organic compounds that help reduce the risks of cancer.
Buying Brussels Sprouts
When buying, choose the ones that are compact and firm. They should also be bright green in color. Avoid those that are soft and yellow in color. It is better to buy the sprouts individually rather than buying in bunches. This will ensure that each piece you buy is fresh. Also, pick sprouts that are of the same size, so that each piece will cook evenly.
Storage
When placing packed Brussels sprouts in the freezer, remove the wrapping, examine the sprouts first, and throw away the bad ones. Do not wash the sprouts. Excess moisture will affect its freezer life. Individually bought sprouts must be placed in a plastic bag punched with tiny holes.
Cooking Brussels Sprouts
- Boiling
- Fill a cooking pot with water. There should be one cup of water for every cup of sprouts.
- Bring the water to a boil. Then, add the sprouts.
- Remove the sprouts when tender.
- Steaming
- Boil about an inch of water in a cooking pot or vegetable steamer. Add the Brussels sprouts when the water boils.
- Cook in steam for at least 2 minutes.
- Uncover the pot for at least 10 seconds to remove some of the strong smell from cooking.
- Replace the lid and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes. Cook until tender.
- Poke the Brussels sprouts with a fork to see if they are done.
Brussels Sprout Salad
You will need:
- 15 sprouts, equally sized
- 8 strips of cooked bacon (optional)
- Your choice of salad dressing
- cherry tomatoes, halved
- a clove of garlic (minced)
Procedure
- Boil or steam the sprouts, then place them in cold water.
- Remove the sprout leaves and place them in a bowl.
- Tear apart or crush the bacon strips and place them over the sprouts.
- Add the cherry tomatoes and minced garlic.
- Pour desired amount of salad dressing and serve.
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I also have a different I also have a different approach. i am doing this with my wife, and offer we encounter problems because some were bigger than others so we quartered the larger ones and just halved the smaller ones. We blanched them first in just boiling salt water and we’ve shown you the blanching technique in the previous video. So I blanched those into the boiling salt water and it really brightened up the color and made them look really nice and pretty and such. It softened them up and par cooked them so now we are going to finish the cooking procedure just on the stove top in a sautee pan. What I am going to do is go ahead and light my fire here and get this saute pan heated up. I’ve got some clarified butter and I am going to drop some of this into the sautee pan here and this just happens to be a Teflon coated non-stick; you can use whichever pan you wish. We are going to get this nice and hot. I’ve got some minced shallots; actually they are diced shallots, little bit larger than minced and I’m going to start to caramelize these in the clarified butter. Again the advantage of using the clarified butter is we’ve told you before, is that you got a lot higher smoke point, a lot hardier fat to cook in, there’s not solids because its been clarified and it really makes a nice rich added texture and flavor to any of the foods that you cooked in it and this is actually clarified butter in a Brussels bowl that I just had in the refrigerator and that way you can just spoon off as much as you need as you cook along. So we are going to throw in some shallots as that pan starts to heat up, start to get a little sizzle out of them and caramelize them. I’ve got some white wine vinegar here and its not a whole bunch. What we are going to do is get some color on these guys and once I’m getting some of the residual sugars to come out, we are starting to get a little sizzle. Once most of the butter is used up, I’m going to throw in a little bit of that white wine vinegar and it’s going to kind of deglaze the pan in a sense and pull some of that stuff off. It’s also going to add a nice texture and flavor profile because of its acidic quality and again, that’s white wine vinegar so I’m just going to get a little bit of color on these because I cut them so small. This shortens the cook time a whole bunch on the brussel sprouts because we par cooked them and I scored the inter core there so they would be nice and tender so you could still eat through them. They will be much nicer than the frozen brussel sprouts or canned or any of those things because they are fresh. A lot of the old childhood memories that we have of mother making us eat our vegetables are usually associated with brussel sprouts so hopefully we are going to turn you on to a new technique here.”