If your kids don't like it Caramelize it!

When I was a kid my mother made the worst brussel sprouts the majority of the time she cooked them. What's odd was that she grew up in Belgium so you would think she would be able to cook something called Brussel Sprouts amazing. What did she do wrong you ask? Well they started off green and ended up kind of a dull yellow color after she boiled them for who knows how long and then just added salt and pepper to them... Blahhhhh..

Now I love Brussel Sprouts... what changed? I found out how to cook them properly to enhance the taste and take away the stinky and mushy texture.

What I found was that if you roast the brussel sprouts cut in half in the oven sprinkled with salt, pepper and olive oil and I add nutmeg to it to kick it up a bit and roast them until they are crunchy but not burnt and caramelized. Then the caramelization brings out the sweetness and the crunchy bits are chip like. I have seen people deep fry them. i don't do that because of having to deal with the oil and mess so I found the best and healthiest way is to roast them in the oven. If you want to kick it up a bit once you take them out of the oven add some balsalmic vinegar and some crispy bacon. Those 2 flavours are like the perfect marriage. They work well on their own but together it's like magic.

It's crunchy, sweet, salty, tangy goodness. It hits all the taste buds when you combine it this way and that's why it works. Put the brussel sprouts on a stick and I bet your kids will eat them. Try it and see.

The other thing that takes a vegetable that you don't know what to do with because you usually only see it in soup to something different is to cut up Butternut Squash into 1 inch chunks and put it in a baking dish and sprinkle it with vegetable oil and add maple syrup or for adults some Jack Daniels and a dab of butter and salt and pepper. The sugars in the alcohol and the maple syrup will condense and caramelize giving the coating of the butternut squash a deep caramelization and making it sweet and tasty.

You can do this with sweet potatoes too. I sometimes just add brown sugar and butter and a bit of alcohol just to make sure the brown sugar doesn't solidify.

It works and if you add the maple syrup maybe your kids will think it's dessert and the will try it.

And if you don't have kids but you have friends and family that don't like veggies.. yeah there are a lot of those people out there. I know a whole lot of them. Try this and see if they are curious enough to try it.

Either way...if you like veggies you will probably just like this caramelized way of making some of the ones a lot of people don't like taste a whole lot better.

Get over your fear of brussel sprouts.. caramelize them and see the difference.

Try it and Enjoy.

Eat your Brussel Sprouts!

Brussels sprouts are a cultivar of the same species that includes cabbage, collard greens, broccoli, kale, and kohlrabi; they are cruciferous. They contain good amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid and dietary fibre. Moreover, they are believed to protect against colon cancer, due to their containing sinigrin*
*From Wikipedia

I never really liked brussel sprouts most of my life because most of the time when I had them they were made very badly. There is nothing worse than boiled brussel sprouts. When I was a kid my mom would boil them until they turned a pale yellow.. pretty much destroying any vitamins they may have had in them and the good flavour went down the drain with the water. All I remember is that they had salt and pepper on them. YUCK right? Well most of the time my mother would have to say "Eat your brussel sprouts" but for some reason over cooked cauliflower didn't have the same effect even though they come from the same family. Mushy cauliflower turns creamy but mushy brussel sprouts just turn yucky..only way to describe it.

Recently I started cooking them a different way and they don't taste anything like they did when I was a kid. So if you haven't had any great tasting brussel sprouts try and make them this way and see if it makes a difference.

How to cook Brussel Sprouts right:

Rinse brussel sprouts but don't dry them.
Cut the ends off and cut them in half.
Take off any damaged or dirty leaves.
Drizzle Olive Oil on them just enough to make them shiny but not soaked in oil.

Add a pinch of salt and pepper and you can also add a little sprinkle of grated nutmeg to enhance the flavour.

Place them on a cookie sheet cut side down.

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees and put the cookie sheet in the oven and cook for at least 25 minutes or until the outside turns crispy but not burnt.

As soon as you take them out of the oven place in a bowl and drizzle a little bit of the best balsamic vinegar you have. Just about a teaspoon depending on how many brussel sprouts you made.

That's it.. Simple..easy. Cooking them until they are slightly crispy not only makes them chip like but it also adds caramelization with brings out the sweetness while still retaining all the vitamins.

Try this recipe on your picky eaters and kids and see if they will "Eat their Brussel Sprouts".

Brussel Sprouts get a bad rap... make them better and get people eating them again.