Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Apples and Bacon

If you think you don’t like this teeny-tiny cabbage, you’ve never had this version: Virginia’s Brussels Sprouts with Apples and Bacon!

Basic to Brilliant!

My good friend Virginia Willis is a lot like the title of one of her cookbooks, Basic to Brilliant, Y’all: 150 Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress Them Up for Company. Virginia is basic, as in down-to-earth, real, practical and good; and she is also brilliant, as in creative, intelligent, accomplished, and inspiring.

In this book, she provides us with an extraordinary repertoire of recipes for snacks, feasts, picnics, beach trips, romantic suppers, family reunions — each and every excuse for a food-graced gathering can be deliciously handled by anyone in possession of this great cookbook.

A Cookbook with the Simple and the Special

Virginia sets us up with a library of knowledge about cooking, both for everyday and for company, drawn from  the hearty and gracious Georgia cooking of her childhood, and the classic French culinary expertise she gained during her years studying and then working in France at Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne.

Don’t you want to get in the kitchen and make Mama’s Sausage Swirls; Chicken Breasts with Tarragon Veloute; Beef Daube Provencal; Pinto Beans with Side Meat; Chateau du Fey Cherry Clafoutis; and Dede’s Burnt Caramel Cake? I know I do, and with Virginia’s clear, inviting voice flowing off the page, it’s a pleasure to cook from this book.

You need to invite Virginia into your kitchen, and this book allows you to do just that. You can learn more about her at her website: VirginiaWillis.com

Brussels Sprouts? Delicious? Yes, yes yes!

I broke in my brand new copy, which I was thrilled to receive from Virginia’s publisher, Ten Speed Press, with a dish my father adored, and one I had to come around to as a grown up: Brussels sprouts. I wasn’t always a fan, but Virginia explains why.

“Of course you don’t like them if the only way you’ve ever had them was cooked to stinky mush!” she notes on page 195 of the Vegetable chapter in Basic to Brilliant, Y’all. Turns out cooking them with bacon, onions, and apples makes a dandy little chorus for the beautiful tiny cabbages I’ve learned to adore. Virginia calls for Granny Smith apple, but you can use a sweeter apple such as a gala or a fuji, too.

Blanch the brussels sprouts in boiling water to take the edge off their rawness and brighten their color. Then let the skillet and seasonings do all the work!

VIDEO TIME! 

Watch Virginia cooks this dish crunchy-delicious vegetable dish on Martha Stewart’s television channel by clicking this link:

Virginia’s Brussels Sprouts on Martha Stewart TV!

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Virginia Willis’s Sautéed Brussels Sprouts With Apples and Bacon

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Virginia Willis’s Sautéed Brussels Sprouts With Apples and Bacon

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Ingredients

• 1 pound Brussels sprouts, cut in half (or peeled according to directions below)
• 2 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into lardons
• 1 onion, preferably Vidalia, chopped
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and cut into ¼-inch dice
• Leaves from 2 sprigs thyme, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add Brussels sprouts and cook until bright green and just tender, about 5 minutes; drain and set aside.
2. In a skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until crisp, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Decrease the heat to medium, add the onion, and sauté until translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the apple and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, until the apple is golden brown, about 3 minutes.
4. Add the Brussels sprouts and toss to combine. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes.
5. Add the parsley and toss to coat. Taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper. Transfer to a warmed serving platter and serve immediately.
6. To make it brilliant: Cut about ¼ inch off the stem end of each sprout and begin peeling off the leaves.
7. When difficult to peel further, trim off another ¼ inch and continue removing leaves. Repeat to peel all leaves from the sprouts; discard the tiny cores.
8. Follow the basic recipe above, but no need to blanch the sprouts. Add the leaves to the onion and apple. Sauté until the leaves are bright green and slightly wilted but still crunchy, about 3 minutes.
9. Taste and adjust for seasoning with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve immediately.

Nutrition Information

Yield 4 Serving Size 1
Amount Per Serving Calories 96Total Fat 3gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 6mgSodium 200mgCarbohydrates 14gFiber 4gSugar 6gProtein 5g