Brown Butter Alfredo Brussels Sprouts

Before I start letting you know about your new favorite way to eat Brussels sprouts…

We have just a few hours left to use the discount code NYMAG10 at checkout at Eat Happy Kitchen.

This is a flash sale, and I want to make sure you use it to get your goodies at a discount.

TL;DR as to what happened on Friday/Saturday: NY Mag surveyed for people’s favorite jarred sauce, claiming Rao’s is the undisputed champion. Hundreds of you answered the call, and within 45 minutes, the survey was taken down. Boo hiss.

OK, back to the only way to eat Brussels Sprouts…with a brown butter Alfredo sauce.

I have a number of delicious Brussels sprouts recipes in my cookbooks and here at Substack, including two of my favorites (and soon to be yours):

Creamy Dill Pistachio Brussels Sprouts and Cheesy Sprouts (one of my most popular Substack recipes).

Cruciferous vegetables like Brussels sprouts are a great way to get fiber, phytonutrients, all the health benefits of feeding the gut bacteria yadda yadda.

My job is to make those vegetables delicious. And oh boy have I with this recipe.

I wrote this one two years too late, or else it for sure would’ve made it into my third low carb cookbook Eat Happy Italian.

Brown butter Alfredo sauce is restaurant quality, but full disclosure: it’s super easy to make at home.

When you go low carb, you probably keep cream, butter, parm, and garlic on hand. Now you just need to practice cooking the sauce, so start tonight by making this recipe.

What’s the best butter for Alfredo sauce? The butter you can afford, is my short answer. I’ve been using Plugra when I can find it. I also enjoy the grass-fed butter in the green package from Costco.

Probably the biggest mystery with how to make a brown butter sauce is how brown is the brown butter. The answer: brown but not burnt. If anything turns too dark of a brown (espresso colored) or black, you are burning your sauce. Since this is a brown butter Alfredo, you are adding freshly minced garlic, so that’s another component of the dish that you want to brown but not burn. Just keep an eye on it, and you’ll be fine.

I gave both air fryer and oven instructions to cook the Brussels sprouts to they’re soft and tender, with some crispy leaves (which are the best part).

As always, I’ve provided a downloadable PDF, pasted the recipe here on this post at the very end, and now am using the Substack recipe card template so that you can print that from your desktop, if desired.

(Serves 3-4)

• 1 pound Brussels sprouts, rough ends trimmed and discarded, then cut into quarters

• 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for the Brussels sprouts

• Salt and pepper

• 3 tablespoons salted butter

• 3 garlic cloves, minced

• 1/3 cup heavy cream

• 3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

Preheat an air fryer or oven to 375 degrees. Toss the Brussels sprouts pieces well in olive oil, then place them into the air fryer basket or parchment paper lined baking sheet and season them well with salt and pepper. Cook for 9 minutes, then toss the pieces and cook for another 9 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil and the butter in a large frying pan on medium high heat. Let the butter melt and start to bubble and turn brown. Add the minced garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes, being careful to only let the butter and garlic turn golden to brown and not burn.

Turn off the heat and whisk in the heavy cream, which will boil because of the hot pan. Whisk in the parmesan and keep whisking as the cheese melts into the sauce and the sauce thickens. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.

When the Brussels are done cooking in the air fryer (the larger pieces should be soft and the leaves will be browned and crispy), pour the pieces into the brown butter Alfredo sauce and toss to completely coat the Brussels sprouts in the sauce. If needed, season once more with salt and pepper and serve immediately.