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Gochujang Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cilantro & Peanuts

Crispy, tender, spicy, sweet, and addictive are just a few of the adjectives that describe these amazing Gochujang Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cilantro & Peanuts.

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Last May, Mr B and I had tickets to see Marc Cohn at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, so we decided to make a night of it. We started out with a light meal at Southpark Seafood (our current Portland happy hour spot!) before the concert.

With a relaxed-chic vibe, this northwest Portland eatery features sustainable seafood and farm-fresh ingredients, and while their happy hour drink menu is just average ($6 house wines and sangria, $5 local brews), Southpark Happy Hour Eats are outstanding in every way.

For our meal, Mr B ordered six Oysters on the Half Shell [$6/3] for himself (I don’t do raw oysters) while I opted for the Spicy Shrimp & Grits [$10]. We also shared a Caesar salad [$6] and an order of their signature Gochujang Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cilantro & Peanuts [$7], and finished with a board of their amazing Maple Cream Puffs (with maple pastry cream, maple frosting, AND candied pecans) [$5].

The entire four-course meal for two was less than $40… in Portland!!! (Excluding beverages and tip, of course). AND, everything was delicious!

We especially enjoyed the Gochujang Roasted Brussels Sprouts – they were literally the best Brussels sprouts I’ve ever eaten! Crispy, tender, spicy, sweet, and addictive are just a few of the adjectives to describe these amazing oven-roasted sprouts.

I immediately put it on my list of recipes to figure out and blog about (as in, I opened Evernote right there at the restaurant and typed myself a quick reminder). I’ve heard that Southpark will just give you the recipe if you ask, but I was interested in learning more about its mysterious new-to-me ingredient, Gochujang paste, so I decided to take it as a challenge.

What is Gochujang Paste?

Gochujang Paste, or Korean Red Chili Paste, I’ve since learned, is a savory, sweet, spicy fermented condiment made from chili powder, glutinous rice, fermented soy bean powder, and salt. It gets its sweetness from the glutinous rice and has about the same consistency as a thick hoisin sauce or tomato paste, but is much stickier.

You can find Gochujang paste at almost any Asian market. If you’re at all worried that the Gochujang paste will make the sprouts too spicy, don’t be. The end result is a savory, sweet, almost mapley Brussels sprout with a subtle but respectable hint of heat.

5 from 1 vote

Gochujang Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cilantro & Peanuts

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time25 mins

Total Time35 mins

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course: Side Dish

Author: Renée B. ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb Brussels sprouts
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons honey
2 1/2 tablespoons Gochujang paste
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup Chopped cilantro plus extra for garnish
1/4 cup chopped unsalted roasted peanuts plus extra whole peanuts for garnish

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425°. Line a heavy sheet pan with a Silpat mat (or with aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray) and set aside.
With a paring knife, remove the base off of each Brussels sprout and cut down the middle from stem end to flower.
In a medium bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, honey and Gochujang paste. Add in Brussels sprouts and toss to coat.
Spread prepared Brussels sprouts evenly on prepared sheet pan. Season liberally with salt and pepper.
Roast Brussels sprouts in preheated oven 25-30 minutes (depending on how large your sprouts are), or until the sprouts are dark golden. (See note.)
Remove from oven. Sprinkle peanuts and cilantro evenly over roasted sprouts and then transfer everything to serving dish. Garnish with additional chopped cilantro and peanuts. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes

When spreading Brussels sprouts on the pan to put in the oven, I like to start them all with their cut side down, flipping them with a spatula halfway thru the cooking process.

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The sauce in this recipe (olive oil, vinegar, honey, and paste) has a multitude of uses beyond Brussels sprouts, from chicken marinade to kale chip dressing.

I’m not sure how close this is to the Southpark Seafood recipe, but it sure tastes spot-on. I hope you enjoy these Gochujang Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cilantro & Peanuts as much as we do!

Additional recipe credit: While the inspiration for this post came from Southpark Seafood, the actual recipe shared here is an adaptation of this recipe by The Garlic Pad.

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Tilikum Crossing {Bridge of the People}

January 20 By Renée ♥ 8 Comments

Hey Portland, remember that one gloriously bright sunshiny day we had a week or so ago?

You know the one. (Because there really was only one.) Well, Mr. B, Em and I jumped on it and took our first walk across our newest bridge – Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People.

Tilikum Crossing is a car-free pedestrian and transit bridge, making it the first of its kind on the United States.

Our third-mile walk across the bridge was lovely, and included some beautiful views of Mount Hood.

The light, airy structure of Tilikum Crossing stands in bright contrast with its neighbors. To the south is the Ross Island Bridge, with its imperial ironwork towers, and to the north the Marquam and its stark Cold War vibe. (The Marquam is my least favorite bridge ever.) Next to them, Tilikum Crossing rises from the Willamette as fresh and vibrant as a teenage girl at a retirement home dance.

Truly a Bridge of the People, Tilikum Crossing’s name is significant. Historian Chet Orloff, chair of the committee that named the bridge, says the name was selected because it connects our region’s past with the promise of its future.

Tilikum is the Chinook Wawa word for “people” — hence Bridge of the People. [It] symbolizes coming together. It conveys connections, in not only the relationships between people, but in the connections we will make as we ride, walk, run and cycle across this beautiful new bridge.

The bridge is design to safely carry pedestrians and cyclists, as well as light rail and streetcar riders between the South Waterfront, Lair Hill, the Brooklyn neighborhood and the inner Division area.

Generous 14-foot-wide paths, one on each side of the bridge, are designated for cyclists and pedestrians. In addition to the dedicated bike path, there are also several bike-only signals, as well as a electronic cyclist counter that tallies how many cyclist ride across the bridge each day, as well as giving a grand total since the opening last September.

Portland, however, is a town known as much for its readers and writers as its cyclists. This quote – stamped into the sidewalk at the east end of the bridge – evokes Walt Whitman’s famous poem celebrating the glories of existence, the interconnectedness of body and soul, and the oneness of all people.

I sing the body electric,
The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them,
They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul…

~ Walt Whitman

Em loves her pink coat. She says it makes her look like a model.

We are really looking forward to taking an evening stroll along the Waterfront when the weather starts to warm up so that we can fully enjoy Tilikum Crossing after dark. That’s when 178 LEDs, controlled by an aesthetic lighting program, illuminate the bridge. The lighting program pulls data from the USGS river monitor and adjusts the lights’ colors according to the water’s height, speed and temperature. How cool is that?!?

Tilikum Crossing Facts & Stats:

Opened September 12, 2015
The first span over the Willamette in the Portland area since the Fremont Bridge in 1973
Four-pier cable-stayed bridge type (two piers on land, two in the water at the towers)
About 1,720 feet in length
Two towers, each 180 feet high
75.5 feet wide (110.5 feet at the towers)
About 3.5 miles of cable
14-foot-wide path for cyclists and pedestrians (one on each side)
25 mph max. speed for buses and trains
For transit, pedestrians and cyclists only

For more information on Tilikum Crossing, visit How We Roll [News for Trimet Riders].

The Trail Less Traveled: Elowah Falls & McCord Creek Falls {Hike}

October 9 By Renée ♥ 8 Comments

Enjoy both sweeping views and relative solitude on this – the Elowah Falls & Upper McCord Falls Hike –the least-traveled trail on Oregon’s “waterfall road.”

It can be so easy to put off exploring your own backyard. Late this summer, Mr. B, Em and I decided to spend a week camping along the Historic Columbia River Highway at Ainsworth State Park, and take the time to explore Gorge trails so close to home that we often overlook them.

We took our trusty copy of Curious Gorge along with us, which lists over 100 Gorge hikes, and found a number of enticing trails to check out, including this one, which I’m almost embarrassed to admit I’ve never hiked before. It seems that I’m not alone though: the book’s author, Scott Cook, says that due to its weirdly hard to find parking lot, “Elowah Falls is the most overlooked major waterfall in the entire Gorge.”

I believe him. If you have ever hiked to the top of Multnamah Falls, you probably had a lot a company along the trail. Not so on the Elowah Falls and McCord Falls Hike. I could count the number of people we encountered the entire time we were on the trail on two hands.

The Elowah Falls hike is actually two hikes in one. About .2 miles in, at the second junction in the trail, you can choose to go up to Upper McCord Creek’s twin waterfalls, or down to Elowah Falls. We took the high road first.

A short way into our hike, we encountered a rusty piece of history – this long cast-iron flume pipe running down the hill.

According to Cook, this flume was built circa 1890 by pioneer Myron Kelly, who used it to deliver pressurized water from McCords Upper Twin Falls to his pulp mill down on the river. The pressurized water turned mill wheels that ground cottonwood trees into pulp, which he sold to Camas’ paper mills.

The mile-long trail to McCord Creek Falls makes several switchbacks for an elevation gain of 260 feet. It also passes a basalt wall blooming with wildflowers, and gives you a beautiful view of the Columbia River and Hamilton Mountain across the river in Washington.

If you’re lucky, you might even catch a glimpse of the Columbia Gorge Sternwheeler making its way up (or down) river.

We stopped at McCord Creek Twin Falls to eat lunch, and Mr. B and Em did a little exploring while I took pictures of the local flora.

After lunch, we returned down the trail to Elowah Falls. The falls are fed by runoff from Mount Hood and, due to our extremely dry summer weather, the 213-foot high waterfall itself was somewhat anticlimactic, but nonetheless lovely, and the spray was quite refreshing after our hot afternoon hike. We’re hoping to take the hike again in early spring when the water is flowing more.

The canyon created by the falls creates a wind tunnel, and as we got close to the falls basin, the wind became strong enough to push the weak waterfall flow sideways.

If you are looking for a great, easy hike, we highly recommend checking out Elowah Falls. From Portland, it makes for a beautiful day trip, and if you are looking to get a little one-on-one time with the people you love along the way, the trail will be all yours.

Proof that I was actually on this hike! (Also: Wind)

Hike Info:

Elowah Falls & Upper McCord Falls Hike

Easy-Moderate Hike
.75 miles to Elowah Falls, 1 mile to Upper McCord Falls, and 3.5 miles to do both.
Trail is very well-maintained, but rocky. Wear good shoes.
Pets are OK. Leashes required.

Getting there:

The parking lot really isn’t that hard to find. It’s just that it is situated east of the place your normally return to the highway from the old Historic Highway, and I think people just don’t know it’s there. (All the better for us solitary hikers then, huh?) The trailhead starts in the parking lot of John B. Yeon State Park, making this the most easterly of the Historic Highway’s waterfall hikes.

From the west (30 minutes from Portland)
From Portland, take Hwy 84 east to Ainsworth exit 35. At the stop, turn left, and then immediately right onto Frontage Road. Follow for 2 miles to Yeon State Park (just before the highway entrance).

From the east (30 minutes from Hood River)
Take I-84 west to Warrendale exit 37, Take the exit and go .3 miles, then turn left under the bridge. Take another left onto Frontage Road and head east for .3 miles to Yeon State Park (just before the highway entrance).

Resources: Curious Gorge [2013 edition], by Scott Cook [←affiliate link]

An InLinkz Link-up

Hike to Witch’s Castle {Forest Park, Portland}

August 20 By Renée ♥ 22 Comments

Once upon a time, I had visions of hiking through the hills and valleys of the Pacific Northwest with my happy little train of children, traipsing along whilst singing our hearts out all Von Trappified and such. (In my perfect world, it would be totally acceptable to break out into song at any given moment.)

But then… Tweens. Then Teens. Do you know how hard it is to entice the average teenage girl to go on a Hike with her Family? Here’s what worked for us most recently:

“Hey, do you want to go an a super-easy hike to a mysterious, probably haunted, definitely creepy stone Witch’s House hidden in the forest?”

“Yeah. I thought so.”

Before I detail the hike directions, a little history lesson is in order.

Forest Park has always been a hotbed of strange happenings in the Portland area, and Witch’s Castle is at the epicenter of one particularly haunting tale.

It seems that back in 1850, one Danford Balch filed a claim on a parcel of land near the newly settled town of Portland. Danford needed some help clearing the land, so he hired a transient worker named Mortimer Stump. Balch invited Stump to stay with his family, which included his wife Mary Jane and their nine children, while the work was being done.

Unfortunately, Stump ended up staying on a lot longer than was healthy for anyone.

It seems that Stump eventually fell in love with 15-year old Anna Balch and asked for her hand in marriage. When Danford and Mary Jane refused, the couple threatened to elope, and Father Balch retorted that if they did, he would kill Mortimer Stump. Young love being what it is, Mortimer and Anna ran off to Vancouver and were married in the fall of 1858.

Danford Balch would later claim that what happened next was the result of his wife “bewitching” him. The next time he encountered the couple, in Portland with other members of Stump’s family, a drunken Balch shot Mortimer Stump in the head. Balch was arrested, but escaped while awaiting trial.

Finally arrested again six months later on his own property, he was tried, found guilty, and subsequently hanged in October of 1859, making Danford Balch the first (legal) hanging in the Oregon Territory.

Mary Jane Balch, the “Witch” in our story, continued to live on the property. To this day, some attribute the strange occurrences at the Witch’s House to the ghosts of Danford, Mortimer, Anna, and Mary Jane.

If that isn’t enough to intrigue your teen off the couch, I don’t know what is.

Lamentably, the Witch’s House is not the actual Balch home. Over time, the Balch land was passed to various owners, and was eventually given to the City of Portland by Donald Macleay in 1897 to be used as a park.

In the 1950’s, a stone ranger station and restroom was constructed near the old Balch place, but was soon abandoned and quickly deteriorated. It is that stone structure that stands today as the Witch’s House.

How to get there: The Witch’s House is an easy half-mile hike from the Upper Macleay Parking lot near the Portland Audubon Society, or a slightly longer three-quarter mile jaunt starting from the Lower Macleay Parking lot at at NW 30th and Upshur.

If you want to visit the Audubon Society first, as we did, you can pick up the trail just to the right of the Wildlife Care Center, and then the only turn you’ll make is a quick left onto the main trail.

It’s an easy twenty or so minutes walk the hike in from Upper MacLeay, following Balch Creek on the Wildwood Trail.

Strange things are afoot at the Witch’s Castle… (If someone knows how I did this, please tell me – I may want to create the effect again someday! And no, I did not drop the camera.)

Speaking of Strange Things, Mr. B and I pose in front of a seemingly innocent doorway. And yet…

… the doorway above leads to this not so innocent little room/cave under Witches Castle. > >Shivers< <

OK, maybe it’s time for something pretty…

At the end of the day, we all had a great time together, and got to explore a pretty cool little corner of our world. And for the record, I did sing on the trail on the way back – accompanied by the lilting tones of, “Oh my gosh, Mom! You are so weird!”

As a Portland native, I take that as a real compliment.

P.S. About the picture above: I’m pretty sure I’m not really that short. I’m almost positive I was standing in a hole. Or something.

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The Roses Outside Our Window

June 18 By Renée ♥ 5 Comments

We took a trip to Portland’s Rose Garden last weekend. As I wandered through the seemly endless rows of roses, I found myself contemplating this quote by Dale Carnegie:

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

While I embrace Mr. Carnegie’s sentiment, I wonder if he might have chosen his words differently had he been a native of the Rose City, for it is certain that we Portlanders have magical garden of our own, blooming right outside our city window.

Tucked between the toney homes of NW Portland and the hills of Washington Park, every spring this century-old garden bursts with velvety, buttery blooms for nearly as far as the eye can see. It is nothing short of Magnificent.

The oldest public garden of its kind in the United States, Portland’s Rose Garden can trace its beginnings back to 1915, and Jesse A. Currey, rose lover and Sunday editor of the Oregon Journal. Fearing that European hybrid roses would be destroyed in the bombings during World War I, Currey convinced city officials to institute a city rose test garden as a safe haven for unique varieties from across the Atlantic.

Peace Rose – Photo credit: John Haupt, reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0.
(I didn’t get a good photo of this one.)

Many of the roses in the test garden are named to commemorate people, places and ideals, but my favorite is the Peace Rose. I remember being very young, standing close as my Poppy held a huge bloom full in the palm of his hand, bending it down to me so that I could see its delicate yellow and pink petals come alive in the sunlight. It was his favorite too. Legend has it that this aptly-named hybrid tea-rose was on the last plane out of France before Hitler’s occupation.

Honestly, I could go on and on about Portland and roses and all the entwining history. But I won’t. Because pictures are worth… well, you know.

Enjoy.

“Lagerfeld Grandflora”

“A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.”
~ Liberty Hyde Bailey

Washington Park International Rose Test Garden

Currently open from 7:30 AM to 9:00 PM daily. Admission is free.
Located in Washington Park in Portland’s West Hills, the garden includes more than 10,000 plantings of over 500 varieties.

[All images are mine unless otherwise noted.]

Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival

April 12 By Renée ♥ 4 Comments

Image courtesy of Gaelynn M. (My little sister!)

Last Wednesday my sister and I had the rare chance to spend the day together, and her only request was to go “somewhere pretty.” So I took her to one of the prettiest places I know of in the Portland area – the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn. This time of year, the tulip fields are a photographers dream – they are so full of vibrant color that images almost paint themselves into the camera.

Image courtesy of Gaelynn M.

The Tulip Festival, which began in 1985, is a tradition started by Ross and Dorothy Iverson, who raised their children on the 40-some acre family farm, and are passing the tradition onto them and their grandchildren.

The tulip fields are rotated each year with other crops, and this year they are planted a little farther out than recent years. It’s a bit of a walk, but it is definitely worth the effort. You also have the option of riding a shuttle out to the fields, or on a cow train or tulip cart, the latter being one of the numerous children’s attractions at the Festival.

I love how this filter highlights the contrast in the Leen Van Der Mark tulips so beautifully!

Does it bother anyone else that this bench is tilted ever so slightly as compared to the horizon?

Tulip stems can be purchased on the spot, or you can order bulbs from their extensive catalog to be shipped just in time for planting season. Mr. B and I did this a couple of years ago, and I remember being so excited when our bulbs arrived in the mail in the fall.

I fell in love with this tile piece, and I should have bought it, but I didn’t. However, {ahem…May birthday here} you have my permission to nudge Mr. B in this direction. I’m sure they would ship it!

The Tulip Festival has a wonderful gift shop full of all things Dutch and tulipy. Food and beverages can be purchased on-site at their Tulip Café, including sandwiches, sausages, burgers, fish, and chips, ice cream, elephant ears, kettle corn, espresso, beer and wine. Nearby in the Crafters marketplace, you can watch a wooden shoe-making demonstration, browse booths for crafts and art, and enjoy local food offerings.

The tulip farm’s collection of old farming equipment was pretty cool.

Image courtesy of Gaelynn M.

Walking through the fields got me to thinking about Hazel, an elderly woman I used to work for many, many years ago. Hazel and her husband, George ran a craft store – Hazel’s – in the center of town. Something of a local legend, Hazel was well known for surveying the store from her “perch” above on the mezzanine, from where she would offer her opinion, solicited or not, on just about everything to those below. I remember one time when she overheard a customer’s concerns that some colors Hazel had suggested for a project might clash.

“I want you to think about every flower you can think of,” Hazel said. “Can you remember ever thinking to yourself, ‘Hey those flowers there clash with those other ones?’” When the little woman shook her head, Hazel went on, “Well, there you go. Flowers never clash with one another. You never see anything in nature clashing.” Then Hazel stalked off shaking her head at the woman. She had no patience for people who would not heed her advice.

I never forgot that exchange, and it has influenced more than my art in the years since. Because Hazel was absolutely right, and here the tulip fields bear it out – bright pinks and deep purples grow right alongside vibrant oranges and sunny yellows, and together they create a captivatingly beautiful color palette.

Funny thing about Hazel: she was as endearing as she was opinionated, and the town is a little less colorful now that she is gone.

The Tulip Festival has something for everyone with a full calendar of events now through May 4th, and includes everything from photography classes to a chicken BBQ to an Easter Egg Hunt. If you live in the Portland area, take time to attend – you will come away with some beautiful memories.

Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival

33814 S. Meridian Rd., Woodburn, OR 97071
Festival & Gift Shop Hours: 9am – 6pm daily through May 4th
Admission: $5 bikes & motorcycles, $10 a carload, $20 buses
Season Pass: $40

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose – I paid my admission, walked through the fields, took some pictures and came home to share them with you. I received no compensation of any kind for this post.

Crispy, tender, spicy, sweet, and addictive are just a few of the adjectives that describe these amazing Gochujang Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cilantro & Peanuts.

What is Gochujang Paste?

Gochujang Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cilantro & Peanuts

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

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Hey Portland, remember that one gloriously bright sunshiny day we had a week or so ago?

Enjoy both sweeping views and relative solitude on this – the Elowah Falls & Upper McCord Falls Hike –the least-traveled trail on Oregon’s “waterfall road.”

Hike Info:

“Hey, do you want to go an a super-easy hike to a mysterious, probably haunted, definitely creepy stone Witch’s House hidden in the forest?”

THANK YOU so much for being a faithful reader and supporter of The Good Hearted Woman. ❤ Be sure to PIN this post!

Washington Park International Rose Test Garden

Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival

THANK YOU so much for being a faithful reader and supporter
of The Good Hearted Woman. 🌻 Be sure to PIN this post!