Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–I’m glad you’re here!
Fall is definitely here and what better way to welcome it than with recipes for Brussels sprouts?
I can’t say that I loved Brussels sprouts as a kid, but I also can’t say that I remember having them as a kid, either. Mr. Stone Soup, on the other hand, has vivid memories of sprouts–and I don’t mean good ones, either. My husband claims that he can swallow any pill, no matter what horse it was made for because growing up, he hated Brussels sprouts so much that he learned to swallow them whole. I don’t know why he swallowed the sprout–perhaps he swallowed the sprout to catch the fly…
For about the first 25 years of our marriage, I never tried to feed him Brussels sprouts because of a fear of what behavior might be triggered if I did. Over the years, he softened to them, having been forced to eat them in social settings where he had to be polite. Still, I avoided them because I didn’t really miss them, not having grown up eating them.
Enter bacon and sunflower oil; well, that and the asparagus guy, Matt at the Farmer’s Market. Matt grows the yummiest, sweetest asparagus in the world. He says he has “sweet soil.” Given what we know about “terroir” in the wine industry, I’m sure this could be true. But I’m more inclined to think that Matt has a little magic dust that he sprinkles on his asparagus to make them so addictively delicious!
Anyway, this year, Matt is growing Brussels sprouts and I figured if anyone could grow yummy Brussels sprouts, it’d be Matt and I decided to give them a try.
In my sporadic interactions with Brussels Sprouts, I have found them to be rather dry and at times bitter. Given Matt’s sweet soil, I figured I didn’t have to worry too much about bitterness, but I knew I needed to do something to address the dry quality. Enter bacon. And cast iron. After all, everything’s better with bacon and cast iron, right? The first time I made this recipe for Brussels sprouts with bacon and sunflower oil, I used three slices of bacon to about a pound of Brussels Sprouts and they were sweet and yummy, but on the dry side:
The next time, I added a little sunflower oil in the pan and then a little drizzle over them at the end of the saute. Voila! This time, the sprouts were sweet and juicy on the palette. This recipe is so easy and so delicious, you’ll be finding yourself turning to it time and time again!
Serve it with any fall main like roast chicken :
or pork tenderloin:
Enjoy!
See you next week–until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
