Our daughter is learning to cook, and the first technique she has mastered is roasting. Roasting is a great place to start cooking, because you can make a whole meal in the oven with judicious timing. We often do tag team cooking, and Zoë has taken it upon herself to become the resident vegetable roaster. One of her claims to fame is that she even got her vegetable-hating cousin to eat her brussels sprouts, and to come back for seconds!
Serves: 3 to 4
Time: 45 minutes, 30 active
Ingredients:
2 T olive oil
1 lb of fresh brussels sprouts, cleaned and halved
3 cloves of garlic, sliced cross-wise
Fresh rosemary
Fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
Lemon juice to finish
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Arguably the most time-consuming part of making brussels sprouts is trimming and cleaning them, but it is totally worth it! Trim the stem to loosen outer leaves, and cut in half.
Place brussels sprouts in a baking dish with sides that will hold them on when you go to turn them. You want them to be a single layer deep, so we find we often need a cookie sheet with edges. Other times we use a cast iron skillet. We line it with parchment to make clean-up easier.
Drizzle olive oil over brussels sprouts and toss to coat. You can also use an olive oil spray if you prefer. Add garlic and herbs, salt and pepper to taste, and toss again before placing in oven. How long they take to cook will depend on how big they are. We peek at them after 10 minutes, give them a stir, and then every 5 minutes after that until they are done. Squeeze lemon on these before serving.
Serving suggestions:
Brussel sprouts are best in the winter, and are well suited to be served with most any protein.
