Brussels Sprouts and M&Ms

When I was a kid, my parent’s told us that every once in a while, you might find an M&M inside of a brussels sprout. The only way to find one, of course, was to eat all of your brussels sprouts. Now I know what you’re thinking – didn’t you catch on after a while when these elusive candies never appeared? Ah, but my parents were tricky. Just often enough to keep us hooked, they would slip an M&M on to our plate and exclaim “Look! One of them must have fallen out!”. I eventually wised up and caught on to their scheme, but I never really cared for brussels sprouts – as a kid or an adult, candy or no candy.

Then last year, a stalk of them arrives in our Angelic Organics box. First off – a stalk?!? I honestly never knew how they grew; it was a revelation. My next thought – brussels sprouts, great... what am I going to do with these? But, I did some research and experimenting and found out that I actually really like them when they’re roasted. They become a completely different beast – sweet and caramely without a hint of the funk that the raw (or for that matter, canned) ones have.

When I saw these at the Green City Farmer’s market today, I couldn’t pass them up. Iron Creek Farms was also selling them in convenient pints, already cleaned and off the stalk – but what fun would that be? Now is the time to enjoy them while they’re in season. Of course you can find them all year round in the grocery store, but they don’t look like this!