This Recipe Made Me Fall in Love with Brussels Sprouts

My father’s electric steamer was a predictor of horror in my house. When I was growing up, I knew that the odors emanating from within its clear plastic walls would be more along the lines of decay than deliciousness. Dad’s favorite way to prepare any brassica was oversteaming it to the point that it achieved a light gray hue. His favorite victim? Brussels sprouts.

I grew up in the 1990s, before new, less bitter varieties of the cabbage-like vegetable began hitting American shelves. To me, they looked like mini Audrey IIs from Little Shop of Horrors and tasted no more appealing. My mother would occasionally roast the tiny green heads in the oven, but I don’t remember ever partaking of the polarizing bites. In my early adulthood, I never even considered inviting them to be part of my dinners at home.

I’d always been a ravenous eater, but my real culinary awakening began in 2008, when I spent a summer as an intern at EatingWell. My life’s meals until that point had been unapologetically meat-focused, with salads and carrot sticks perfunctorily thrown on a plate for the sake of some vague idea of nutrition. But the test kitchen team wowed me with recipes for vegetables, healthy grains and even soy protein.  

Chief among my discoveries was that Brussels sprouts didn’t have to be watery or bitter. This was a time when chefs were starting to really have fun with the vegetable, frying the sprouts and applying sauces that made them sought-after appetizers as well as side dishes. How did the formerly anxiety-inducing ingredient win me over? Two simple components that had been desperately missing in my father’s preparations: acid and fat.

The basic recipe that got me started was roasted Brussels sprouts finished in balsamic vinegar with bacon. The concept of calming the less appealing funk of the main ingredient with vinegar and highlighting its nuttiness with salty meat became the basis for experimentation. That included making my own recipes and using existing ones. Eventually, I landed on a favorite, originally published in Diabetic Living Magazine, now featured on EatingWell.com. 

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Cider Vinegar closely resembles one of my own improvisations that included pancetta and cider vinegar. Though not as sweet as balsamic, I found that using cider vinegar was far more budget-friendly than buying a good version of the former. Adding honey to the sauce and drizzling a little more on at the end contributes the sugar my palate is seeking instead. I love the zing of the garlic that I sauté before making the sauce, and the whole-grain mustard that finishes it. Essentially, it’s Vermont in a bowl, incorporating many of my favorite flavors from the 17 years I lived in the Green Mountain State. 

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Cider Vinegar

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Sometimes I simmer the Brussels sprouts in salty water as is suggested in the original recipe. But not always. Since the dawn of the air fryer, Brussels sprouts have been among my favorite foods to make in the appliance. I spray them with avocado oil, lightly salt them, then crisp them up for about 7 minutes. I make the honeyed cider vinegar sauce in the pan as the recipe dictates and then combine the air-fried vegetables with it when both are done. I finish it with the sprinkle of crunchy bacon.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I began dating a man with an awful secret, at least to a food writer like me. Though he did his best to hide it for our first months together, this person who became my husband was a bit of a picky eater. If he could subsist entirely on flaky Malaysian roti and rice pudding, he absolutely would. 

The first time I told him that I was making a roasted chicken with Brussels sprouts for dinner, he tried to stifle a visible grimace. Chicken on the bone was the first hurdle for him, but my choice of vegetable wasn’t far behind. Yet there’s simply no arguing with that sweet and tangy sauce. I air-fried the halved sprouts that time until they were crispy, coated them in the cider vinegar concoction and crushed bacon on top. 

Nearly five years since those pandemic-era meals at home, my husband now specifically requests Brussels sprouts as a side dish. In fact, we typically eat them twice a week now, more than I ever did when I was single. I never did win him over with my pomegranate molasses vinaigrette, but as long as I toss Brussels sprouts with bacon and cider vinegar, I know I have a dinnertime hit on my hands.