Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts By Lisa Lin

I like eating this as a side dish for weeknight dinners. To make a complete meal, I serve the kung pao Brussels sprouts with jasmine rice and pan-fried tofu. There will be a lot of kung pao sauce leftover in this recipe. You can pan-fry firm or extra-firm tofu and drizzle sauce over the fried tofu. For more guidance on how to make this pan-fried tofu, refer to my pan-fried teriyaki tofu recipe. Use the leftover sauce from this recipe instead of teriyaki sauce.

HOW TO MAKE KUNG PAO BRUSSELS SPROUTS

PREPARE BRUSSELS SPROUTS

Rinse the Brussels sprouts and quickly dry them with a towel. Trim the bottoms and slice them in half. I usually buy my Brussels sprouts from the farmer’s market. Often times, I get tiny sprouts that are less than 1 inch in diameter. For those sprouts, I roast them whole. If you have very large sprouts (larger than 1.5 inches in diameter), cut them into quarters.

ROAST BRUSSELS SPROUTS

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and position an oven rack to the center position. In a bowl, drizzle 2 tablespoons olive oil over the Brussels sprouts and toss them with a pinch of salt. Spread the Brussels sprouts over the baking sheet. I like placing the sprouts cut side down so that they can brown. There’s likely a lot of stray Brussels sprouts leaves, which brown faster than the sprout. Halfway through roasting, I remove the leaves from the pan so that they don’t burn. To make them easier to remove from the pan, I gather the Brussels sprouts leaves into one corner of the sheet pan (see photo above). After 10 minutes of baking, check the leaves. They’re likely still quite green, but it’s a good idea to gauge the roasting process at this point. Roast the sprouts for 2 to 3 more minutes and check again. Once the leaves have browned considerably, take the sheet pan out the oven. Using a spatula, remove the leaves. Then, spread out the remaining Brussels sprouts and bake them for another 10 to 13 minutes. The total roasting time for the sprouts should be about 22 to 25 minutes.

PREPARE SAUCE

While the Brussels sprouts are roasting, prepare the sauce. Combine water, sugar, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Zhenjiang vinegar and dried chili peppers into a saucepan and bring everything to boil. Zhenjiang vinegar (aka Chinkiang vinegar, 鎮江香醋) is a rice-based vinegar that has malty flavor. If you don’t have it on hand, you can use rice vinegar or white vinegar. I bought Chinese dried chilis for the recipe, but dried cayenne peppers work too. If you can’t find that easily, you can use 3/4 to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes. When slicing the dried peppers, nearly all the seeds will fall out. You can scoop all or some of the seeds into the saucepan. Bring the liquids to boil. Once boiled, add the cornstarch slurry. The slurry consists of 3/4 teaspoon cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of water. This slurry will help thicken the sauce slightly without turning it too viscous. If you made the slurry ahead, make sure to stir it thoroughly before adding it to the hot liquids. Cornstarch settles to the bottom quite quickly. Note that you’ll have more sauce than you need for the dish. Save the sauce and use it for stir fries, fried rice, or chow mein.

PREPARE PEANUTS

To mimic kung pao chicken, I added peanuts to the dish. My favorite method of preparing is to fry raw peanuts in a bit of oil for 1 to 2 minutes in medium heat. Alternatively, you can buy dry roasted peanuts for the dish. Make sure to toast the peanuts on a pan for several minutes to release the nutty aroma.

FINISH THE DISH

Once the Brussel sprouts are done roasting, transfer them to a bowl. Add the peanuts to the bowl. Toss the Brussels sprouts with 3 tablespoons of the kung pao sauce. Taste the Brussels sprouts and add more sauce, if necessary. Serve with jasmine rice.