It is kind of a rare day here at Macheesmo when I post two healthy and all vegetarian meals back to back. But sometimes that’s just how the dice land, ya know? At the end of the day, while I love a good burger, most of my meals these days are on the healthier side. I’ve been eating a lot of salads and veggies, so that’s what you guys see. Lucky you!
For this post I thought I would tackle a veggie that gets, quite possibly, the worst publicity of any veggie ever. If brussel sprouts had a PR guy, they should fire him immediately and hire me. I will speak to their amazing-ness.
Eat your SPROUTS!
What you have to remember about brussel sprouts is that basically they are a mini-cabbage. Do you like cabbage? Then you will like brussel sprouts! But even if you don’t like cabbage, these guys can be used as kind of a blank canvas. They literally soak up whatever flavors you put with them, which in this case is a delicious red wine vinegar glaze.
The Parmesan adds some creaminess to the dish and the pine nuts give the whole thing some needed texture. I mean… it’s okay to not like plain old steamed sprouts I guess, but these guys are different! To not like these would be kind of weird.
Roasted Sprouts with Red Wine Reduction
- 1 pound of brussel sprouts. (I just used one bag. Should be about 30 sprouts.)
- 1/4 Cup pine nuts, toasted
- 1/3 Cup red wine vinegar
- 1/3 Cup olive oil (Few tablespoons for roasting, the rest for the reduction.)
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- Parmesan cheese, shaved
- Kosher Salt
The easiest way to get brussel sprouts is in a bag. You can buy the long natural stem with them attached, but that is kind of a pain to work with unless you plan to grill the whole stem, which I also highly recommend but is the topic of another post.
The simple sprout.
Look for sprouts that aren’t too big or loose. Nice and tight orbs with bright green leaves are what you are looking for. Wash all the sprouts and then chop off the stems and half each sprout. Don’t worry if a few leaves fall apart. That’s bound to happen.
Then put all the sprouts in a roasting pan and drizzle with some olive oil and Kosher salt.
Sliced and diced.
Put these guys in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Be sure to check them and stir them every 10 minutes or so in case they are cooking faster than expected.
Meanwhile, you can get your other ingredients ready!
Other essentials.
The first thing I did was toast some pine nuts. The best way to do this is to just pour them in a dry skillet. Don’t use oil or anything. Just the nuts. Put the pan on medium heat and watch them carefully, stirring every minute or so. After about 5 minutes you should notice a distinctly wonderful smell coming from them and they should start to brown a bit.
They are done! Pour them in a bowl to get them off the heat as soon as possible. These guys will go from perfect to BURNED in about 30 seconds.
Watch these guys. They will burn.
Now that you have a hot pan (from the pine nuts), you can use it to make your red wine reduction. Add your olive oil (I used probably 1/4 of a Cup) and then add your garlic to the oil. Let the garlic simmer for about a minute and then add your red wine and your sugar and stir.
Let this simmer away and after about 10 minutes it should be reduced by about half. The way to really tell if it is the right consistency is to run a spatula through it. It should leave a trail in the syrupy reduction.
A good reduction leaves a mark.
If you timed it right, your sprouts should be just about done. Some of them will be more browned than others and that is okay. I also like to pull them out when they still have a slight crunch. If they are too soggy then they kind of just turn to mush on the plate. Mush is not a delicious texture.
These were about perfect:
Out of the oven.
Pour your sprouts right into the pan with your reduction and stir to soak up all that sauce. Then toss with your pine nuts and shave some Parm over the top.
It’s a fantastic side dish that will have any veggie haters warming up to the little green orbs of death. That is, if you can get them to try it.
Up close and personal
Make this dish. Eat your vegetables. Thank me in fifty years.
These were really awesome… and I’m definitely not a brussel sprouts fan normally. I have to learn how to make this.
I love the Brussels sprouts. I have a jar of duck fat that I normally to saute the sprouts. A little bit of finishing salt and a crack of pepper is all I need. Simple and tasty.
Nice brussel sprouts! I’ve recently started to eat them and I made a similar dish consisting of a balsamic reduction in the place of red wine and also I cooked it with TONS of bacon :)
I linked you on my food blog too, hope you can do the same!
Happy cookin! Your food looks great!
I used to despise Brussels sprouts, until I realized that the whole problem was that I was getting cheap product, namely frozen stuff. Then I had the opportunity to try fresh sprouts, cooked simply with butter, just the way that you made them (still firm, with slightly browned bits on some of them), and realized they weren’t so bad. But I can’t convince my wife otherwise, and I’d given up until I saw this. We have some vegetarian friends staying with us too, so now’s the perfect time to try and spring it on her.
Also, @ William-I find the fact that there is duck fat in a jar a bit disconcerting.
This is a terrific recipe! We were fighting over the leftovers.
[...] dinner, I decided to try my hand at making brussel sprouts. Shauna’h suggested a great recipe from a friend, although I did not have all of the ingredients to make it. So, it was my own [...]
Also making these guys today. They were awesome.