Brussels sprouts with quinoa - better than I would have expected
I’ve never met a brussels sprout I liked. I have always found them to be bitter, without redeeming flavor, and too tough to chew. But, I think it’s healthy to try things from time to time even if I think I won’t like them, and ideally trying a really good example of that thing so I can be sure it’s the food and not the preparation that I object to. In this case, it paid off.
I saw brussels sprouts at the farmer’s market last weekend, and thought I’d give them a whirl, because they’d been on my mind. I’d heard from a couple different sources recently, just offhand, that these veggies get an undeservedly bad rep, and that in fact most of the ones we see in supermarkets matured too long to cook well. It was enough to pique my curiosity, and the sprouts I found looked small and young – tender young brussels sprouts are less tough and more tasty.
While I won’t call them my favorite vegetables, these brussels sprouts weren’t bad! Most importantly, they softened up nicely upon cooking, making them easy to eat. They also had a better flavor – a little bitter, but also crunchy and vegetal – than others I’ve had. I would even go so far as to call them pleasant!
My preparation was simple, concocted after reading a few books’ theories on the best ways to eat them. The one piece of advise I found everywhere: do not overcook. I’m not sure if I followed this to the letter – even when I’m careful, I’m prone to walk away for the 30 seconds it takes a veggie to go from crunchy to soggy. But, they came out fine nevertheless. It was an easy and free-form dish, and the hardest part was rinsing and slicing all those brussels sprouts. Here’s what I made:
These brussels sprouts were especially good alongside yogurt
- Cook up some quinoa.
- Rinse the brussels sprouts, remove any bad-looking outer leaves and tough stems. Cut in half and boil them for 6 minutes or so. Do not overcook! They’re done when they’re just tender when you poke them with a fork.
- Drain them, and toss with the quinoa, along with olive oil, dill, and lemon juice.
- Garnish with salt, pepper, and maybe some mint, and serve with yogurt.