Chef Juliette
Choux Rouges à la Flamande
Fine-cut red cabbage, russet apples, butter, sugar, nutmeg, and vinegar share one covered cocotte, cooking gently until the leaves gleam garnet and the apples soften without disappearing.
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Choux de Bruxelles à l’Anglaise
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2115, Choux de Bruxelles à l’Anglaise, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
The green-vegetable lesson in its clearest form: Brussels sprouts boiled fast, uncovered, in properly salted water, then drained without mercy so they reach the table bright, firm, and entirely themselves.
Side Dishes
French
Weeknight
Quick Meal
Budget Friendly
10 min
Active Time
15 min cook•25 min total
Yield4 side-dish servings
Choux de Bruxelles à l’Anglaise (Brussels sprouts cooked in the English manner) teaches control through simplicity. The one true thing to know before touching the pan is this: they must enter plenty of vigorously boiling salted water, cook uncovered, and leave while the cores still offer a little resistance. Once they soften completely, their green and character go with them.
The source assumed a vegetable cook watching the pot and a perforated silver drainer waiting at service. Neither a saucier, stockpot, nor salamander had any work here. For one cook, one stove, one evening, the honest equivalents are a large saucepan, an ordinary colander, and a warmed deep serving bowl. The drainer itself is brigade scaffolding; thorough drainage is the intent and must stay. The quantity has been brought down to four generous side portions, but the ingredients and method remain exactly themselves: sprouts, salted water, nothing more.
Properly cooked, each sprout is vivid green, hot to its center, and firm enough that its leaves remain distinct beneath the teeth. Watch the tenderness, not the clock, and drain the instant a knife enters the core with slight resistance. That is the step that decides the dish.
Brussels sprouts belong first to the market gardens around Brussels, where their compact buds became a cold-weather vegetable carried into neighboring French kitchens. In the French classical vocabulary, à l’anglaise described green vegetables boiled in salted water and presented plainly, so the title names the cooking manner, not a claim that the sprout is English. The perforated drainer used at bourgeois and grand tables kept the last cooking water from pooling beneath the vegetable, a practical purpose that survives perfectly well in the home colander.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
fresh Brussels sprouts
Quantity
8 cups (1½ pounds / 680 g)
trimmed and sorted by size
water
Quantity
3 quarts (2.8 L / 2.8 kg)
fine sea salt
Quantity
1½ tablespoons (22 ml / 27 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh Brussels sproutstrimmed and sorted by size | 8 cups (1½ pounds / 680 g) |
| water | 3 quarts (2.8 L / 2.8 kg) |
| fine sea salt | 1½ tablespoons (22 ml / 27 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •6-quart (5.7 L) pot
- •Large colander or perforated vegetable drainer
- •Slotted spoon
- •Deep warmed serving bowl or timbale
Instructions
- 1
Trim the sprouts
Pull away any yellow or bruised outer leaves, then cut only the dry end from each stem, leaving enough core to hold the sprout together. Keep small and medium sprouts whole. If a few are much larger than the rest, halve them lengthwise through the core so everything finishes together. Rinse briefly under cold water and drain.
Don't cut crosses into the stems. Similar sizing cooks the cores evenly without opening extra channels for water to enter between the leaves. - 2
Boil the water
Put the water and fine sea salt in a large pot and bring them to a full rolling boil. A lid may hurry the water along, but remove it before the sprouts go in. The large volume matters because it returns to the boil quickly, shortening the time the vegetables spend softening in merely hot water.
- 3
Cook them uncovered
Lower the sprouts carefully into the boiling water and keep the pot uncovered over high heat. Stir once so they cook evenly, then boil for 6 to 8 minutes, beginning to test at 5 minutes. They are ready when a small knife enters the stem end with slight resistance and the outer leaves remain firm and vividly green. If smaller sprouts finish first, lift them out with a slotted spoon while the larger ones cook another minute. Once every sprout is soft, no rescue can restore its bite, so act early.
- 4
Drain them completely
Pour the sprouts immediately into a large colander. Shake firmly several times and leave them for 30 seconds, uncovered, so water trapped between the leaves can escape. If they still look wet enough to make a puddle, ça se rattrape: return them to the emptied hot pot over the lowest heat and toss for 15 to 20 seconds, just until the clinging water evaporates. Don't let them brown.
- 5
Dish and serve
Transfer the sprouts to a warmed deep serving bowl, the home equivalent of the classical timbale, or present them directly in a clean vegetable drainer nested over a shallow dish. Serve immediately and uncovered. No butter, sauce, pepper, or garnish belongs to this particular entry; its point is the clear taste of a properly cooked sprout. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Choose tight, heavy sprouts with compact leaves and fresh-looking stem ends. Small and medium specimens cook most evenly; loose leaves and yellowing edges signal sprouts already losing moisture.
- •Salt the cooking water before the sprouts enter. This seasons them from within during their brief boil, while salt scattered over the finished vegetables only sits on their wet surfaces.
- •Keep the lid off once cooking begins. The uncovered, vigorous boil and prompt drainage protect the color far better than timid heat or extra cooking time.
- •The plain service is deliberate. Buttered Brussels sprouts are perfectly good, but they are a different finish; Choux de Bruxelles à l’Anglaise asks the vegetable to stand on its own.
- •Serve beside roast chicken, pork, or a plainly cooked sausage. This is a quiet side dish, made to bring green freshness and a firm bite beside something richer.
Advance Preparation
- •The sprouts may be trimmed, rinsed, and dried up to 24 hours ahead. Refrigerate them in a covered container lined with a dry kitchen towel.
- •Set out the colander and warm the serving bowl before the sprouts enter the water. Once they are cooked, every unnecessary minute costs color and firmness.
- •Do not boil them ahead for reheating. This preparation depends on the brief interval between draining and serving, and reheated sprouts lose the very quality the method is meant to preserve.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 160g)
Calories
80 calories
Total Fat
1 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
300 mg
Total Carbohydrates
12 g
Dietary Fiber
6 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
6 g
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