A recipe for brussel sprouts puree
Though close readers of this space know, as I do now too, that brussel sprouts literally do taste better than they used to (science is incredible), little brings a wrinkle to my nose faster than the days when there were brussels being steamed in the house. As an adult I have learned it’s roasted all the way, all the better to caramelize and delight, or shaved raw and turned into a slaw if you’re feeling fancy. But as a kid with a midwesterner for a father, steamed was the way to go and I don’t think I need to go further in describing the lackluster, wilted smell that technique brings to mind—it’s cooked cabbage, another thing better roasted.
So it was with some trepidation that I took on this month’s recipe, given that the first step was steaming brussel sprouts. But I had the ingredients—leftover brussels and leftover heavy cream—and that seemed enough of a reason to tackle something that was a little more unseasonable that I’d typically hope for.
Steaming is actually a technique I don’t use enough—it’s healthy and often delicious with fresh veg and I should be incorporating it into the repertoire more. As I was feeding just one person (lucky me), I first cut the recipe in half, though there’s like two actual ingredients in it so that’s not saying much. The sprouts steamed quickly (six minutes was accurate), and I let them cool appropriately, after being reminded of the dangers of blending hot things this weekend: a person who will not be named decided to blend a hot batch of homemade BBQ sauce and pressurized the container so much it wouldn’t open. (Crisis was averted eventually, thank god, and the sauce was sauced.)
(This is a good time for an aside about the value of a NutriBullet for blending when you don’t want to dirty a whole food processor—I remembered to do it this time and I’m so glad I did.)
Then I added the chopped sprouts to the cream, stirred it together, and voilá—there is really nothing else to it. Here’s the unsurprising part: I had no fresh nutmeg, and no white pepper, so I did just salt and black pepper and that was that. The final result was easy and delicious in a health-is-wealth steak house kind of way—like creamed spinach, or mashed potatoes, but lighter, if you consider heavy cream healthy. I will be making it again, just maybe not in May.
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