One of our favorite recipes to make during the fall is roasted brussels sprouts. But today I'm taking it up a notch by making balsamic glazed Brussels sprouts. Now, I have to say, it's delicious and stunning enough to make for a holiday, but simple enough to make for a weeknight meal. All right. So we start with six cups of Brussels sprouts. I am trimming the ends off, which is a really, really important step. If you buy your Brussels sprouts, the whole which I would imagine most of us do. You will get them. And they look like this. This top part is very knobby and tough and we have to get rid of it. You do not want Brussels sprouts that have that end on there. So we make sure we cut off plenty of that. We don't want any left behind that looks like this. And from there, I slice them in half. Now, if you have really large Brussels sprouts, you have an option. You can either quarter them, which means you cut them one more time in half lengthwise, or you can just cook them a little bit longer and have larger Brussels sprouts. Now, the most important thing, though, is to make sure that whatever you decide to do, that everything is even as far as the size of your Brussels sprouts before they go in the oven. If you have a mixture of small Brussels sprouts with larger ones, you want to try and make them relatively about the same size before they go in the oven. Now, I have to say, this is all really important information it can make or break your Brussels sprout dish. So be sure to cut off that end and cut them so they're all about the same size going into our bowl here. Now, these leaves. These leaves are gold. You want to keep them as well, just as long as they don't have any brown. But as you see in my pile here, I've pulled off lots of leaves that are brown... they’re... Yeah, we don't want those. Those definitely go into the pile for the compost, right? But any leaves that are green and pretty and still look really nice, they go into the oven as well. They'll be so, so good. Now, every now and then, you can find Brussels sprouts that have already been sliced and prepped in the grocery store. I love it when I find those. So if you see those, grab them. But just make sure before they go in the oven that they really are about the same size. All right. Last guy here, he's kind of small. Keep them there. Take one tablespoon of oil of choice. I recommend avocado oil, if you like, sort of a buttery kind of flavor, if you will. I really feel like that's what you get with avocado oil. Or you can go the traditional route with some olive oil, which is always a great way to go. All right.
Our next ingredient, we have some garlic powder. You can leave this out. It will be fantastic either way. But I like adding that extra little layer of flavor that that garlic powder has to offer. But just about a half a teaspoon or so. We have our pepper here, a quarter teaspoon. And now for our salt, we want a scant half a teaspoon. Now that means just below the line, a little bit less than if you will. So we're not quite filling up that half a teaspoon mark, because when it comes down to it, you can always add more salt later. Right now, we just need to toss it all together. This will serve about 4 to 6 people looking good. Grab a lined baking sheet here. Now, any nonstick baking sheet will do here, but I like to line it with parchment paper just to make cleanup that much easier. All those leaves in there. Now, from here, this is just something I like to do. I like to flip them over so they're all cut side down. And what this does is it ensures that that cut side, it's a nice char, because what we're doing is we're starting with a 400 degree oven, but we're going to be lowering the temperature later. So while that oven is nice and piping hot, this is our opportunity to create a nice char, a nice little brown on that cut side. All right. Looking great. This is going into our 400 degree oven for 15 minutes Now thankfully, I already placed one tray of Brussels sprouts in the oven about 15 minutes ago. So it's perfect timing. I can show you the next step right away. All right. These are already looking really gorgeous. I just love the brown that we're seeing. That means flavor. All right. So we want to flip these over as best we can. Now, if you like, you can go ahead and pull out some of the dark leaves now and then just add them back into the dish later. If you don't want them to get too dark, that's definitely an option. Looking good. We're going to return them to the oven, but we're also going to reduce our oven temperature to 350 degrees for our remaining 15 to 20 minutes. All right. Reducing that to 350. All right.
Now, in the meantime, you can prep the next ingredient, which is completely optional. But I like to add it especially for holidays, which is vegan bacon. I take about four strips and fry them in the frying pan and then give them a rough chop. Add them in at the very last second. There are some bad vegan bacons out there. ::laughter:: There are some that just get way too crispy and tough after they're cooked. So I will say the two types that I recommend are seitan based, which is a wheat protein based, or I like the tempeh bacon also. Both of them have a really great texture and a really great flavor. So we have about four strips here. All right, place these on here. And we just want to brown these lightly on each side. I do about a medium high heat for just about 3 to 4 minutes on each side. All right. Give it a nice chop here. All right. Looking good. We just have a couple more minutes on those brussel sprouts. In the meantime, we can measure out that last ingredient, which is our balsamic glaze. Now, this is balsamic vinegar that has been reduced down to a sirup that is very sweet and yummy and loaded with tangy, sweet goodness. Fantastic. Just... lots of browned little bits here and there. Certainly don't want to overcook them because they can get mushy. I think these are looking perfect the way they are. Now, we're going to use this bowl over again. It’s the same bowl that we used earlier to toss out brussel sprouts and oil, salt and pepper and garlic powder. Don't need to wash it. Going to grab those little leaves that I pulled out earlier. Let's get our vegan bacon in there Right into the bowl. And then our final ingredient that balsamic glaze going right in and from there you just give it a quick toss so that every brussel sprout is evenly coated with the glaze and then you serve immediately just pile it on there. Oops. Lost one. Our little dog Sammie is going to enjoy that. I love this recipe and you can actually find the full recipe on AudreyDunham.com, Just search brussels sprouts or you can also find this recipe in my cookbook Vegan Thanksgiving Dinner & Pies which is available any place books are sold and also on AudreyDunham.com. You can find it there as well Just give us a little taste. Want to get a bite with that little bit of bacon. The Brussels sprouts. Mm So good! Mm You can really taste all of the elements. That little smokiness from that bacon, the heartiness from the Brussels sprouts themselves. Roasting them is definitely the way to go. If you think you don't like Brussels sprouts, then you have to try them roasted. Game changer. Mm. A little bit of sweetness from that glaze. So so good. Try this recipe, guys. You will not be sorry. And I have to say, it's also one of the most popular recipes on my website. It’s a big favorite. Now, be sure to like and subscribe if you haven't done so already. And if you've tried this recipe, be sure to share it with your friends and also leave a comment below so I can hear what you think. Thanks so much. We'll see you next time.
