There are really many variations, and you should totally feel free to experiment, but the basic steps are: steam trimmed, halved sprouts for a scant two minutes, then brown in a heavy-bottomed skillet in some sort of fat (olive oil, butter, or a combination of both bacon drippings coconut oil whatever you like to cook with), and season with salt. Sometimes a sprout will just have too many aphids if that’s the case, chalk it up as a loss and move on to the next sprout. They are also delicious oven-roasted whole, with a little olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.) (Cutting in half is not a required prep step though it’s just one I commonly make, as I like to pan brown them. Cutting them in half is a reassuring step as well, as this makes it easy to confirm you got all the aphids. Or if after trimming and removing a few leaves there are still some aphids and it seems a waste to cut away more sprout to remove them, use a soft-bristle brush under a little running water to clean remaining aphids out of the crevices. If aphids are present, simply trim off the areas where you see them, or remove more leaves until you’ve reached a layer where they are no longer present. Generally speaking (and especially if aphids are not evident), you don’t have to wash Brussels sprouts because you are already “cleaning” them by trimming off the bottom and then peeling away a few outer leaves. It’s all well worth the trouble though, because boy are they good! Think of it as a zen exercise makes it very contemplative, calming. Prepping Brussels sprouts takes some patience, because there’s no getting around having to deal with them one at a time. So: that provides a nice segue into simply showing you how to prep Brussels sprouts! Here, eradicating aphids is a wee bit easier than with broccoli as a) you have to prep each individual sprout before you cook them anyway, b) the buggers are easier to spot, and c) the techniques for removing them are essentially a slightly more aggressive version of the prep you’re already doing. Rinsing does not work not even rinsing with hot water. This is by far the best technique I’ve come up with. About a year ago I wrote a comprehensive treatment (with good pictures) for dealing with aphids in broccoli so definitely go there if you specifically want to address aphids in broccoli. Cleaning them out of Broccoli and Brussels sprouts is another story entirely though, as both have lots of little interstices for hiding in.įirst, broccoli. Sometimes you have to get your fingers down in there and rub while rinsing, to dislodge them. With leafy things like kale, they’re easy enough to spot and wash/rub off they are a bit clingy though, so a simple rinse doesn’t always cut it. In our CSA shares we most often encounter them in the brassicas - broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale.

But don’t despair there are other ways to deal with them! I’ve never consciously done this myself, but it’s a bit of lore that could come in handy if you were stuck between a rock and a hard place (i.e. (And don’t ask me how I know this you probably, ahem, already know the answer!) A solution from bygone days was to introduce lots of ground black pepper to the dish you were making - the pepper flavor hid the aphid taste, and the little black flecks of pepper hid the… well, you get the idea. You “can” eat them, as in they’re not harmful (technically I suppose they’d be protein), so it won’t hurt if you ingest a few - but they don’t taste good. Tiny soft-bodied grey fuzzy trouble-makers. This is a subject none of us like to deal with but which we have all inevitably encountered. Can I wash/rinse them off, and how?” Folks, Anna brings up a good question. writes, “What are those ‘bugs’ that I find in vegetables like broccoli and now the Brussels sprouts? Are they aphids? Are they edible? The thought just grosses me out so I end up throwing away a lot of healthful vegetables.

Little sesame seed looking eggs