Best Brussel Sprouts Ever

So, I found a recipe on Poppytalk that sounded good. But I had to change it. I don't know if I have difficulty with authority or just following recipes in general, but I can rarely leave them just as is. . . except in baking which feels like chemistry I don't understand and thus don't want to monkey with.

But these sprouts were amazing.


Preheat Oven to 400 degrees.

serves 2-3

2-3 handfuls of sprouts
2-3 T Olive oil
Ground Sea Salt to taste
Garlic Powder to taste
Ground Red Chipotle Pepper to taste (or Cayenne, if you prefer)
Ground Black Pepper to taste
(I put the dry seasonings in order of which you should use the most to least of. You can use the sea salt pretty liberally. But the idea with the red pepper isn't to make these little buggers incredibly spicy. . . just to give them a little pleasant heat.)
Honey to finish

Directions--clean sprouts as usual, cutting off tough ends and stripping a few outer leaves. Cut all but the tiny-tiniest in half, then soak in cold water for 15 minutes. Drain the sprouts and lay them out on paper towels--you have to do this with the cut side down or they will retain a lot of water.

Scatter sprouts over a metal baking tray. Pour olive oil over all sprouts, then sprinkle all dry seasonings over sprouts. Use hands to shuffle and mix sprouts on tray until they are evenly covered with oil.

Put in oven for twelve minutes. At end of twelve minutes, use a spatula to stir them around, flip them over, then put them in for another twelve minutes. (24 minutes total will carmelize them nicely--much more than that and they will burn.)

Pull them out of the oven and while still on tray, salt them a tiny bit more and dribble a little bit of honey over them. The honey--like the hot pepper--is not meant to overwhelm them or make them intensely sweet. It's just an additional flavor to round them out.

These are ridiculously good. It's like healthy comfort food.