Free up Thanksgiving oven space with Brussels sprouts cooked on the grill
Most of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Food and Dining recipes featured this November will have Thanksgiving in mind. You can look forward to an easy turkey main in under 30 minutes, creamy potato au gratin pulled from the AJC archives, a cookbook recipe featuring a classic sweet potato casserole and a pecan pie from a famous chef.
We’re starting off strong with this recipe from “Grill Time!” by Noah Galuten (Alfred A. Knopf, $35). “Grill Time!” offers 80 healthy recipes — including these Brussels sprouts, which are charred outside, leaving you space in your kitchen to prepare other Thanksgiving dishes. Readers also get tips on how to choose grills, charcoal and wood chunks, plus recommendations for grill maintenance.
“Grill Time!” isn’t protein-heavy either — there are ample recipes for veggies, giving you balanced meal combinations. Galuten groups his recipes into two categories: convenience or weekend projects, depending on the amount of time the recipes require.
Brussels sprouts’ flavor has changed over the years
You can’t avoid seeing a Brussels sprout in any grocery store this month; its present-day popularity makes it hard to believe the mini brassicas were pushed to the side on many plates decades ago. Before the ’90s, Brussels sprouts were incredibly bitter and cooking them produced a very pungent odor; I could identify what was for dinner from three rooms away.
Brussels sprouts didn’t suddenly become popular because of a fad, nor were they rebranded to make them more appealing — they simply taste better thanks to selective breeding, with many of the bitter compounds removed, making them more mild in flavor.
Brussels sprout recipes then versus now
If you grew up in the ’80s, Brussels sprouts were mostly steamed or boiled, with nothing more than butter, salt and pepper for flavor, which did little to mask their unpleasant odor and taste.
Along with the milder flavor in current varieties, recipes now use various techniques such as roasting, frying or grilling to produce a pleasant textural contrast versus the soggy ones we remember. In “Grill Time!,” Galuten grills the sprouts to get the outside nice and charred, while leaving the interior soft.
The more recent cooking preparations also enable you to reap their health benefits, as nutrients don’t leach out as much as when sprouts were boiled for long periods of time.
Vinegar, soy sauce add deliciously balanced flavor
Galuten uses a 1-to-1 ratio of balsamic vinegar and soy sauce on his Brussels sprouts after they finish on the grill, simply tossing them in the mixture before serving. These two components become sticky when combined, creating a glaze with a salty, tangy flavor that balances wonderfully with the charred sprouts.
Charred Brussels Sprouts
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds Brussels sprouts, brown stem-ends trimmed
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to finish
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
Instructions:
- Set up a two-zone fire. If grilling with gas, set one side to high and the other to medium-low. Clean and oil the grates well on the cooler side.
- Place the sprouts in a large bowl and toss them with the olive oil, a generous pinch of salt and several twists of pepper.
- Lay the Brussels sprouts on the cooler side of the grill and close the lid. Check them after 10 minutes, turning them to get more color on the other side. Lower the lid and continue cooking until the sprouts are tender all the way through, about 10 more minutes, depending on size, removing cooked ones as they are finished.
- While they are cooking, add the balsamic vinegar and soy sauce to the bowl that the sprouts were in. As the sprouts are cooked, add them back to the bowl. Toss well and then season to taste with more salt, if needed. Pour them onto a serving plate and drizzle with some olive oil.
Recipe adapted from “Grill Time!” © 2026 by Noah Galuten. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
