An Instant Success!

Creamy Instant Pot Brussels Sprouts

This certainly isn't a recipe in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" but I have to think she would have approved. After all, the later editions of her book discussed using cooking technology that didn't exist when she originally wrote her book. Thinks like food processors and electric mixers were deemed acceptable. Surely she'd have approved of the use of an InstaPot, right?

Thanks partly to Julia, Brussels sprouts have been becoming one of our favorite vegetables lately. In particular, her recipe for creamed Brussels sprouts has become a family favorite. The only challenge with her recipe is that it does take a bit of time to slowly cook the sprouts while they absorb the cream. Then along comes my sous chef and sweetheart with her recently discovered InstaPot recipe for Creamy Brussels Sprouts She made them for us and they were so good I decided I needed to make them so I could tell you about them.

I doubled the recipe (so we'd have leftovers) but I'll give the ingredients here for the single basic recipe. Hang on, this will go fast but first I need to 'fess up about my injury preparing this simple recipe. Injury? Yeah, it caught me by surprise too. Then again, I suppose all injuries catch me by surprise or I wouldn't have done whatever had caused it, right? I didn't actually get injured by the cooking process, but I did get injured during the cooking process.

First, an explanation about my kitchen. Our kitchen has some lovely under-cabinet lighting. Lovely lighting that I like to have on while I'm cooking. I haven't been in the habit of touching these lights in the past and I don't expect to be doing it again in the future. The InstaPot was sitting on the kitchen counter under the cabinet so I simply needed to pull it out from under the cabinet. Simple, right? Actually, yes -- but I managed to brush the top of my hand against one of the bulbs for just a moment. That's all it took! I actually got the worst burn I've had when cooking -- blisters and all! Sheesh, this cooking business is dangerous. Now, back to cooking.

Two pounds of Brussels sprouts were trimmed and cut in half lengthwise and then tossed into the pot. On top of that I added a tablespoon of butter, some salt and pepper, five cloves of finely chopped garlic, and 3/4 a cup of cream cheese that's at room temperature. On top of that I poured a cup and a half of chicken broth (you could use vegetable broth if you chose) and closed the lid on the InstaPot. That was it for the preparation, and it was the slowest part of the whole cooking process!

The InstaPot was then set to Steam (or high, depending on your pot) for two minutes. After the two minutes were up, the pressure was released using the quick release. Off came the lid and everything in the pot was stirred up. Then, the final ingredients went in -- five ounces of bacon bits and a fourth of a cup of grated parmesan cheese. After everything was stirred together the lid went back on and everything was allowed to sit for five minutes to melt the cheee and let the sauce thicken.

That was it! These were amazing and tasted like a lot more time and effort were needed to prepare them. They're kind of kind of like Lay's potato chips -- betcha can't eat just one. I can pretty much guarantee that if Julia could try these she'd immediately release a new edition of her cookbook just so she could write about using the InstaPot! Leave a comment for me to let me know how you like these.

Bon Appetit!