Thursday, December 23, 2010

Brussels Sprouts Roasted with Cipollini Onions – Warning: Takes Longer than 60 Seconds

As many of you know, I also do recipe videos for About.com, but what you don't know, and would probably never guess, is that out of all the recipes I've produced for them, the most popular is a Brussels sprouts dish!

It's called 60-Second Brussels Sprouts, and you can see the original post here. As the name suggests, the recipe calls for a super-fast sear-and-serve approach. Here, we're at the other end of the spectrum. These actually get cooked twice, and for a much longer time.

The secret here is a quick blanching in boiling salted water, and then 15 or 20 minutes in a really hot oven. The searing heat and natural goodness of the vegetables do most of the work, so nothing more than a little brown butter and seasoning are needed.

This would make a very nice side dish to your holiday feast, and I can't think of a main course, especially one made from some type of succulent animal, that this wouldn't pair wonderfully with. If you can't find the Cipollini onions, just use pearl onions, or you can just leave them out altogether.

By the way, the Brussels sprouts only need a couple minutes blanching to prepare them for the oven, but the Cipollini onions should be cooked almost to the point of being tender before being roasted. You want that nice mellow, sweet onion flavor, not something sharp and jarring to the palette.

I hope if you have more that 60 seconds, you'll give these a try. Enjoy!


Ingredients:
1 pound Brussels sprouts
1/2 pound Cipollini or pearl onions
2 tablespoons butter
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Holidays, Chef John and Michelle.
Jackie

Chef John said...

Thanks, same to you!

Anonymous said...

Hi Chef John!

I know you're probably tired of this, but may I make a request? I'm a financially strapped college student and I LOVE your Inside-Out Grilled Cheese, Homemade French Fries, Potato Pancakes, etc. but I can't find much else that meets my budget (which I fully understand. These are recipes for taste and quality). Is it possible to post something for with a low price in mind (if not, no worries!)?

Anyway, I love the site and when special occasions come around, your recipes and methods are the first I turn to. Hope you and Michelle have an amazing time and enjoy the holidays!

Anonymous said...

hi chef. i love your recipes and wanted to make this for new yrs dinner. i was quite shocked when i saw how much salt you put into the water with the veg cos usually i only put in a tsp. i think this is why my veg never comes out good. i was just wondering, how many tbsp of salt should i put in instead/ Thanks!

Anonymous said...

hello! if i am to use pearl onions, how long does it take to cook? and could i just use regular onions if i cant find pearl ones? if yes, how long does it take to cook? thank you!

Chef John said...

Pearl may take a 3-4 min. Just do until they get a little tender.

Chef John said...

Can't give salt amounts. Add until the water tastes like seawater.

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas to you and your family, Chef John.

I love your website and the awesome recipes.

I ate Brussel Sprouts only one time, where they actually tasted good (mostly, I hated them). That time there were made with garlic.

Just wonder, would adding garlic to this recipe ruine it? Or would you not recommend it?

Thank you very much!
Iweta

Anonymous said...

Finish this dish with a little bit of white truffle oil for perfection.

Anonymous said...

Made this last night...delicious!

The Culinary Chase said...

Yum! I love Brussel sprouts. Hope you had a lovely Christmas! Cheers!

Unknown said...

Chef John:
I've never seen your face in your vids and I really like listening to your voice and learning from you. When I saw it today, you are exactly the way I pictured you.

I was wondering if you have a recipe for frozen whole Rabbit.

Thanks Chef John, you truly rock. Never watched a vid and not laughed or chuckled at it, very funny sir.

philogaia said...

I have yet to create this exact dish but this inspired me when I last weekend I was making the Roasted Root Jumble that Aarti Sequeria posted on her site. I couldn't find the fennel bulb the recipe called for but remembered this roasted Brussels sprout recipe. There were nice sprouts in the WF... So I substituted, blanching them ahead the way this recipe calls for, then roasting with the rest of the veges (red onion, little red potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, and carrots) and laid lemon slices over to roast with them. Oh man! I'm not a Brussels sprout person either and would have never thought of it. But this was GOOD. Brussels sprouts are now on the list of great roasting veges for me. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

looks scary tasting.. but i will trust you cheif john!!! only question is, DO YOU EAT THE ONION TOO!!!

cookinmom said...

Excellent...didn't have your kind of onions but had (I know, frozen) but they worked out perfect. Nuked them for 2 min. and threw them in with the sprouts. Ok, so I slipped a little piece of fat from some bacon when I make eggs in the a.m. Ohh, so good! You did it again chef!

Anonymous said...

I made this tonight to accompany roasted chicken. I was starting with about 1/2 pound sprouts that I had left over from a few days ago, so I decided to add about 1/2 pound of fingerling potatoes (which I cooked with the cipollini).

I may be biased because we love Brussels sprouts, but I thought this was a lovely way to prepare them!

Thanks Chef John!

Cindy said...

Well, kind sir, you did it again. I recently found your YouTube channel (thanks to my 3-year old granddaughter who is a YouTube Food junkie). This recipe intrigued me, so we experimented for dinner tonight. Another side dish knocked out the ballpark, and we're batting 1000 with your recipes. My husband wants this again, but with quartered mushrooms.

I love that the Brussels did not have the bitter taste.

Keep those recipes coming and our marriage in Heavenly bliss! Thanks Chef!!

Jamie's LBSU Blog said...

How long do you leave them in the ice water?

Unknown said...

Hi Chef John,

We had Christmas dinner at my brother and sister law's home. My 4 year old daughter loves your brussels sprout recipe. So do I! My sister in law (God Bless her) had brussels sprouts (not your recipe) for dinner. My daughter loaded her plate with them. She spat out the brussels sprout and said it was yucky! Last night we were in the grocery store and she saw brussels sprouts and she demanded we pick them up. Congratulations you got a 4 year old to love brussels sprouts! Happy New Year!

Tony