Renée’s Brussels Sprouts Casserole

The secret to this recipe in my opinion is freshly ground nutmeg in the sauce. Also key, is the vinegar bath. Sausage and bacon will always pair well with cabbage, but you don't need salted meat to make Brussels sprouts pop. Decadence of cream sauce without the fat of cream, although I do make it with whole milk, which reduces to a cream.

Growing up, Brussels sprouts often symbolized the healthy but disgusting food that parents want their kids to eat, which they will not eat; in sitcoms, movies, stories, etc. My own husband recounts his childhood trauma of eating "boiled Brussels sprouts," and I can totally understand why this would be traumatic. Cabbage can have a very bitter taste and an all-too-leafy texture.

Sometime in the early naughts, I remember it became fashionable to roast Brussels sprouts with chunks of bacon. A lot of cute little bohemian restaurants started to offer Brussels sprouts and bacon as a side. Then fancier places like upscale steakhouses.  The bacon did a decent job at disguising the bitter taste, but it also made for an overly greasy meal.

I've never been a fan of disguising tastes. Make the taste work! Own it! That is what my mom's recipe for Brussels sprouts does! Nutmeg, mustard, and lemon blend with the bitter flavor, and making it nutty and delicious. The first step of the vinegar bath also helps.  I have never eaten better Brussels sprouts. Bacon or not!

This recipe might seem complicated and time consuming to some degree, because you're making two things: the sprouts themselves and a cream sauce. If you were roasting them, maybe it would seem like it's just one step. But everyone knows you can't roast Brussels sprouts without quartering them. They're just not going to soften consistently cooked as little balls, and by the time the inside would be soft the outer later would be burnt to a crisp.

So yes, you've got to do a bunch of stuff to your Brussels sprouts, and you've got to stir a cream sauce, but you save a huge amount of time on Step 1 not quartering the Brussels sprouts. You also save big on the cooking time. Roasting sprouts is usually a 35-40 minute oven bake session. All of the steps you take with prepping cooks the sprouts in small increments. Between roasting time and casserole time, when all is said and done, I would say the casserole is only 10 minutes more.

Once you get good at making this recipe, you'll find that you can make the two components, greens and cream, at the same time. Minus soaking time, if you get to "Expert" level on this one, its a great recipe to have in your back pocket. It's healthy but it's also a crowd pleaser and a treat.

If you visit my Kitchen Essentials post, you'll see that I talk about the water and salt quality that you use in prep. For blanched foods, where some steps literally involve boiling food, you should always work with filtered water. Ideally you have a filter for your drinking water, which removes chlorine and fluoride. While there is nothing wrong with trace amounts of chlorine, it really does affect cooking. I can't get into the science of it, because that is not what I do, but I can tell you it makes a difference.

If you don't have a drinking water filter, don't worry. Using tap water is not the end of the world. Brita filters are pretty good too. They go a long way. tend to notice a difference in the outcome taste depending on the kind of salt one uses. Your typical Morton's iodized salt is a perfectly good product, but I find it has a harsher taste and is easier to overdo than pink Himalayan salt. Himalayan salt is more gradual, and makes it easier not to over salt something by accident.