Fried Brussels Sprout Leaves

What a great veggie appetizer.

I mentioned in earlier post that I had dinner one night at the Salty Sow in Austin several months ago. We ordered these fried Brussels sprouts for an appetizer and it was hard to stop eating them. We didn’t until they were gone.

I was watching one of the food shows the other night and they were talking about food trends and which ones should stick around and which ones have run their course.  Bacon was one they discussed and I don’t think people will ever get tired of bacon. Scallops was another one and also an “egg on top of everything” was another. I have seen the egg on lots of menu. Why is it people want to throw an egg on top of pizza, pasta, burgers and even soup?

When it comes to Brussels sprouts they are now on Forbes top 10 vegetable list. I never liked them, never even saw them on the table when I was growing up so my dad must not have liked them either.  I always thought of them as these hard little cabbages that were bitter and you had to chase them all over your plate to try and catch them. In some areas Brussels sprouts are more popular on the appetizer menu than calamari.

Since there was no recipe I could find online for Salty Sow’s French Fried Brussels sprouts I had to come up with my own. Not really a recipe at all. I knew there app had Brussels sprouts (shaved), golden raisins and pecorino cheese. I added a couple tablespoons of good balsamic to the golden raisins for a little sweet/tartness and I had asiago cheese since I could not find pecorino at my grocery. All I can say about this appetizer is that we were eating these as soon as they were taken up and mixed with the raisins, cheese and sea salt.

I can’t wait to make these again. I just don’t like separating the leaves.  I did find shredded Brussels sprouts at Trader Joe’s and we cooked a bag of those after cooking all the leaves I had separated.  They are just as good but a little harder to eat with your fingers, you may have to use a fork.

Not many ingredients to this little snack.

Cut in half and then cut the cores out. What do you have? Little green Pac Men.

The hardest part of this recipe is taking apart the leaves; but they are really better this way than when I used the shredded Brussels sprouts.

We were cooking these on my friend’s outdoor kitchen stove and I so splatter up the stove top. Sorry Peggy!

After these come out of the grease, toss with the golden raisins and cheese and sprinkle with some sea salt. Enjoy.

Delicious!!!! I bet you can’t just eat one.