Little cabbages top list of new favorite foods

Like lima beans and liver, Brussels sprouts rank right up there with the foods children of all ages hate the most.

But unlike lima beans and liver, Brussels sprouts are suddenly popular and all the cool kids are eating them. What in the world of little cabbages is going on?

First, some background so you sound intelligent while munching on them at your next gourmet meal. These little cruciferous veggies are named after a city in Belgium, with a capital B and an “s” on the end. It is not a brussel sprout; it is a Brussels sprout, and yet I’m sure people have been spelling it all wrong since they were first cultivated in the 16th century.

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I’d also bet that since their humble beginnings, there have been people complaining about how bitter they taste. As it turns out, some scientists think that there’s a gene that allows some folks to register a really terrible taste while others, who are less than super tasters, simply can’t detect it. These mediocre tasters can reap the health benefits of these weird little veggies, which are just sprouting with antioxidants and nutrients. Anyone need some vitamin K?

Part of the reason they’ve gotten so popular in our house and why we often have to order double when we go out to eat (doesn’t everyone have kids that fight over them?) is that the cooking and seasoning methods have evolved so much.

Fried, roasted, sweet or garlicky, they are the gourmet

While my parents tell stories of how they used to be boiled until they were a green blob of mush that smelled like a, well, you know what, now all the trendiest chefs are putting them on their menus.

Fried or roasted, sweetened or garlicked, any way you slice or shred them, these little spheres aren’t anything like what was served up in decades past.

In fact, thanks to some fancy science and seed banks in the Netherlands, growers have actually cross-pollinated plants to literally make them different than they were in the past. They’ve developed varieties of Brussels sprouts that taste better, even before you deep fry them and cover them in salt.

If you haven’t given them a try lately, it might be worth a step out of your culinary comfort zone. Test your taste buds and look up a new recipe or order them at your next dinner out. And while you take in their flavor, share some Brussels sprout trivia and daydream about the future of lima beans.

Reach Karrie McAllister at mckarrie@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Column: Brussels sprouts become the new 'it' vegetable