Roasted Honey Gochujang Brussels Sprouts

It's a Thursday night and I'm home alone and I just made the best brussels sprouts known to man and I'm strutting around my house singing and dancing and I'm just overjoyed. My taste buds are singing sweet songs and I'm in love.

A friend made brussels sprouts with gochujang at a party I went to and I loved them so much I had to do a spin off recipe of my own. These babies are roasted to crisp perfection then tossed in a sweet and spicy mixture of honey and gochujang with a hint of balsamic vinegar. Then they're put back in the oven to make sweet, hot magic and caramelize...

I'm a brussels sprouts freak. If they're on the menu, I order them. Every time I'm at the grocery store, I buy them. I like them cooked. I like them raw. If I were to get a tattoo of food on my body it would probably be a stalk of brussels sprouts. Or a plate of nachos. Or a chicken wing. Or a hot and dirty martini.

Anyways...

Gochujang is a fermented Korean chili paste that is spicy and deeply flavorful and complex. It makes it SO EASY to make these brussels sprouts taste like you slaved over a homemade sauce when really it's three ingredients. THREE FREAKIN ingredients!!! Fantastic. You can find gochujang at some fancy grocery stores or your local Asian market and btw if you haven't been to your local Asian food market - Go. Now. I frequently go to mine and have found some gems of ingredients that have been super fun to work with. Mine is also a great place to get bulk spices at affordable prices.

You could play around with the sauce for these sprouts and use a different type of sweetener and vinegar - whatever you want. I like topping them with nuts because I like a variety of textures in my food and sunflower seeds compliment this recipe (and basically any recipe) perfectly. Toasted almonds would work too.

Mmmmm steamy..

To make a complete dinner, these would go great with chicken roasted and brushed with the same sauce and rice or quinoa. There are also some great gochujang bbq sauce recipes out there that I am looking forward to playing around with. Spicy ribs, pork chops, shrimp, salmon, who knows what I'll be blogging about next! For now, I'm going to just take the time to bask in this brussels sprouts glory as nothing makes me happier than finding a new favorite recipe. It may be a while until I'm even able to blog about sprouts again because every time I make them I'm going to want to make this recipe. I guess I could have worse problems.








Honey Gochujang Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb brussels sprouts
1 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp honey
1 1/2 tbsp gochujang
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Sunflower seeds

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil. 
• Cut ends of sprouts and cut them in half. If they are really small, like the size of the end of your thumb, you can leave them whole but still cut the little brown end off. Toss with 1 tbsp olive oil and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. 
• Spread evenly on a baking sheet and roast for 12-15 minutes or until they're starting to brown and are just about fork tender.
• Meanwhile, mix together honey, gochujang and balsamic vinegar. 
• Remove sprouts from oven, toss with sauce, spread back out on baking sheet. Bake for 3-4 minutes more or until the sauce has caramelized a bit. Don't overcook the sprouts, you want them to keep some integrity and not get mushy!