Roasted Brussels sprouts with honey and peanuts
- Preparation 10 min
- Cooking 25 min
- Servings 4 to 6
- Freezing Yes, but the texture changes a bit
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🥬 One of my oldest recipes
I made these a very long time ago. It is one of the first recipes that ever went up on the site and it is still here, because it works. The reason is dead simple: I love Brussels sprouts and I love peanuts. Together they turn sweet and salty, they taste like something, and I love that. An oven, a sheet pan, some honey and a good handful of chopped peanuts. There is nothing more complicated than that going on here.
🥜 The crunch comes from the oven and the peanuts
The title of this page said crispy for years, and that was never quite the right word. There is no frying here and no breading. The sprouts roast at 400°F, they caramelize a little on the sheet, they keep some bite inside, and the chopped peanuts bring the real crunch at the end. Sweet from the honey, salty from the peanut. That is the whole dish. I have never seen anybody else put peanuts on Brussels sprouts, and honestly I have never understood why.
🍯 The weeknight side, no meat
I have a few Brussels sprouts recipes on the site and almost all of them run through bacon. Not this one. This is the base version, the Tuesday night one, ready in 35 minutes next to just about anything: a chicken, or whatever is left of yesterday’s roast. If you want the bacon, go see my roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, mustard and maple syrup. Here we keep it simple.
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🔪 Trim them before you cut them
Cut off the base, pull off the first layer of leaves, slice in half lengthwise. It takes no time, and it gets rid of the tired outer leaves that burn before everything else does.
🔥 Two sheets, one single layer, cut side down
This is the only real secret in the recipe, which is why it sits at number two. Two pounds of halved sprouts take up room. Try to cram them onto one sheet and they touch, they trap their own steam, and you pull out wet sprouts instead of browned ones. So use two sheets and let nobody lean on their neighbour.
The cut side goes against the metal. It is the flattest surface on the sprout, it is the one that actually meets the heat, and that is where the caramelizing happens. You stir halfway through, and that suits me fine: the loose leaves rattling around the bottom go dark and shatter. Those are the best bite on the sheet.
⏱️ Overcook them and it is over
Cook them too long and they go limp, full stop. There is no coming back from that, so start watching at the 15 minute mark. A sprout that still pushes back against a knife is a sprout that is ready.
🥜 Cashews if peanuts are a problem
The peanut is my signature here, but it swaps out for cashews with no argument. An allergy, or just whatever happens to be in the cupboard on a Tuesday night: grab cashews, chop them coarsely the same way, and you keep both the crunch and the sweet and salty thing. Chop them by hand and not in a food processor, or you end up with dust.
📅 What you can do ahead
Not the cooking, that one does not survive sitting around. The trimming and the cutting, though, absolutely: do it the day before and keep the halves in a sealed container in the fridge. The peanuts can be chopped ahead too. Come dinner time all that is left is oiling them and getting them in the oven.
❄️ Leftovers and the freezer
Three ways to reheat that actually work: in the oven, in a pan, or in the air fryer. What you want to skip is the microwave, which will hand you right back the limp sprouts I warned you about.
As for the freezer, I will be straight with you: they do freeze, but the texture shifts a little on the way back. I am not sure I would make a habit of it myself. If you are staring at a full sheet of leftovers and the choice is freezer or garbage, freeze them, they are still good.
✅ If you like this one, you will like this whole style
This is a side dish, so the useful advice is not what to serve it with, it is what to cook next week. My roasted carrots with honey and white wine are built on the same sweet and tangy pair. My perfectly crispy baby potatoes play the same card of a vegetable coming out of the oven with some character. And if maple speaks to you more than honey does, my roasted garlic and maple carrots do the job. To stay with the sprouts, there is my roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, mustard and maple syrup.
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Ingredients
- 2 lb (900 g) Brussels sprouts, cut in half
- About 4 tablespoons (60 ml) olive oil
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) white wine
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) dried parsley
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) honey
- ¼ cup (60 ml) unsalted and skinless peanuts, coarsely chopped
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Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Trim the Brussels sprouts: cut off the base and pull away the first layer of leaves. Cut them in half lengthwise.
- Place the Brussels sprouts in a big bowl and add the olive oil, white wine and dried parsley. Season with salt and pepper then stir well.
- Spread over two large baking sheets in a single layer, cut side down. Cook in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, until the sprouts are cooked but still crunchy. Stir halfway.
- Remove from oven and pour in a big pan at medium heat. Add the honey and peanuts then cook for 3-4 minutes so that all the flavors combine! Stir well and serve right away!
In the oven, at 400°F (200°C), halved and spread in a single layer with the cut side down. Give them 15 to 20 minutes and stir halfway through. Roasting gives you the most flavour because the sprout caramelizes instead of boiling, and it is also the method that forgives the most.
Steaming and boiling work too, but you lose everything the oven brings and you land on the sprout flavour that everybody complains about. If you have never liked Brussels sprouts, there is a good chance that is why.
Straight answer: I have never done it with this recipe. But it is very doable. An air fryer works like a convection oven, and a halved Brussels sprout is the perfect shape for the basket.
I am not going to hand you a temperature and a time I have not tested. What I will tell you is to work in a single layer there too, shake the basket partway through, and watch it closely the first time, because an air fryer always moves faster than an oven. The honey and the peanuts still happen in the pan at the end, exactly like in the recipe.
The oven and the honey handle it between them. High heat sweetens the sprout by caramelizing it, and the 3 tablespoons of honey at the end finish the job. It is no accident that almost every Brussels sprouts recipe out there has something sweet or something tangy in it somewhere.
And for the other question everybody has without asking it: yes, they give you gas. It is a cabbage, that is part of the deal. I do not have a miracle fix for that and I am not going to invent one for you. They are still worth it.
Yes, they freeze. The texture does shift a little on the way back, so do not expect the same crunch you got the night you made them. I am not sure I would make a habit of it, but between that and throwing out a whole sheet of leftovers, the call is easy. Reheat them in the oven or in a pan, never in the microwave.
If what you actually want is to start from frozen sprouts, this is not the recipe for it: my roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, mustard and maple syrup are written that way.
Stay in the same family and you will not go wrong. My roasted carrots with honey and white wine are the root vegetable twin of this recipe. My perfectly crispy baby potatoes are there for the nights you want something more filling next to a piece of meat.
To keep going with the sprouts themselves, I have others: my bacon and maple Brussels sprouts in bite size for company, and my Brussels sprouts and cheddar soup for when it is cold outside.
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