How to Cook Frozen Brussel Sprouts

How to cook frozen brussel sprouts in the oven, air fryer or Instant Pot pressure cooker is here! Cooking frozen vegetables to tender and delicious in no time is a game changer when you forget to defrost your side dish.

How Long to Cook Frozen Brussel Sprouts

This answer depends on how you want to do it. In the oven, shared below, will take the longest but still under 30 minutes so not too bad. There are other methods that will speed up the process. If you have one or more of these handy dandy kitchen appliances you can also try:

1. Air fryer frozen brussel sprouts are closer to 15 minutes
2. You can use the same timing for Instant Pot brussel sprouts, doesn’t change from fresh to rock hard believe it or not

These just have simple seasonings on the outside. If you wanted a bolder choice I would make the sauce from our balsamic roasted brussel sprouts recipe and toss to coat at the end.

This one is quite simple and doesn’t need a ton of explanation other than the ingredients, temperature and cook time. You can mix half and half Brussel Sprouts and Sweet Potatoes or just one. For super easy basic instructions just need the following things, no matter what the cooking method is;

Ingredients

1. Bag of frozen brussels
2. Olive oil
3. Seasonings like salt and pepper, garlic powder and a pinch of chili powder is nice too

How long does it take to boil frozen brussel sprouts?

First off this would be my least favorite method. No matter what vegetable it is if you boil them in water you’re going to make them mushier (and I’m all about great texture) and it will leach the nutrients right out of them. BUT if this is the only way to make them I will help you out.

• Bring a pot of water with some salt in it to a rolling boil
• Pour frozen brussels inside and boil for 4-5 minutes or until they’re as tender as you’d like
• Use a slotted spoon to remove
• If you wanted to crisp the outside you could pour them into your air fryer at 400 F. (sprayed with olive oil and seasoned) for about 3 minutes until crispy.

Enjoy as is or for a bolder flavor drizzle some of your favorite balsamic on top with a bit of olive oil and enjoy with a few frozen chicken breast in oven. Complete meal done!

How to cook frozen brussel sprouts on stove

Now let’s move on to a pan on your stovetop. You can use that too if you’d like. You’ll need a bit of water at the bottom of your pan to steam them essentially this way. Choose a pan like this with high sides and a lid.

• Add about 1/2″ of water into your pan
• Set it on medium high heat until it reaches a rolling boil
• Pour in veggies and put the lid on for about 3 minutes or until fork tender
• Most of liquid should be gone now, if not drain
• Add 2-3 tbsp olive oil and season as desired, coat
• Brown the outsides as you like and then serve!

How to cook frozen brussel sprouts in slow cooker

It wouldn’t take any longer to make Crockpot brussel sprouts whether they started out as hard or fresh brussel sprouts really. The biggest difference is that in the bag like rocks you won’t be able to slice them in half. Typically though when you buy them bagged in the freezer section they are a bit smaller than fresh in the produce section.

SO that should even out as far as the cook time goes so the timing shouldn’t change. If you love the “old fashioned” method for everything go for this method that gets them fork tender every single time.

Ok so we are down to this method. How do you roast frozen brussel sprouts the old fashioned way? We all love oven roasted everything. Last but not least this is how you can make this nutritious vegetable delicious with some parmesan cheese (our fave). There is a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post but here is a quick rundown;

How to cook frozen brussel sprouts in the oven

• You always want to first preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
  • In a large bowl pour in your bag of frozen brussels, drizzle them with olive oil.
  • Add garlic powder, onion powder, and a dash of salt & pepper.
  • Toss well to make sure everything is well coated.
• Spread frozen veggies on a large baking sheet in a single layer without overlapping and bake for approximately 20 minutes to 25 min., until they get to be nice and fork tender.
• Carefully, remove from the oven and top with shredded parmesan cheese.
• Our preference is to go another step and broil for another 2-3 minutes, until they are lightly browned.

If you want to cook an entire meal at the same time, read how to cook a frozen roast in the oven too.

You can do this with other veggies too. We share all the different ways here on our how to cook frozen green beans post as well. Make them all!

Sheet Pan Brussels

If you have leftovers they save quite well until the next day, not really beyond that. I would suggest warming them up in your Ninja Foodi air fryer to fix the softened outside texture to a nice crisp again. Like I said, I am all about texture so there’s that. Alternatively you could slice them up and add into a different dish like our mini quiche recipe.