Eat Your Broccoli!!!

The Brassica Family

Broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi,  brussels sprouts, rapini, Broccoli Rabe, broccoflower, Broccoli Romanesco, also mustard and some Asian Vegetables. 

If you have never had any of these vegetables straight from the garden or the field they you are missing out!   I happen to love brassicas cooked all kinds of ways, but if you are on the fence about whether you like them or not,  or if you despair of ever getting your kids to “eat their broccoli”  then buy a head of broccoli right from the farmer.   It’s an entirely different experience.  Sweet, crunchy, so yummy. 

The brassica family is typically started from seed in greenhouses or hoop houses and then transplanted out into the field.   Some growers use plastic mulch to control weeds.  Each plant only grows one head of broccoli, cauliflower or cabbage.  That’s a lot of plants for a bin load of veggies!    Growers of brassicas fight off cutworms and cabbage moths too.     Cutworms- do just what it sounds like- they cut off the little plant stem right at the ground- dead plant.   Cabbage moths or butterflies are the pretty little yellow/white butterflies that start to come around in July.      

Not so pretty to a vegetable grower as these insects love to lay their eggs on brassica leaves and then the eggs hatch into hungry green caterpillars.  Some growers use floating row cover to physically protect the crop.  Others use methods such as dusting with organic compounds and other use an insecticide- so be sure to ask.    

Row covers

 When you get your veggies home give them a soak in the sink and any hitchhiking caterpillars will float to the surface and can be squished before they end up in the salad or stir fry.  

Last week four of us ate an entire head of broccoli,  grown by Jake of Green Acres, for supper.   Cut up the broccoli – slice the stems into chunks and then separate out the florets.   Chop up one clove garlic and a 1”section of fresh ginger.   Add a dollop of oil to a frying pan or wok and quickly fry the garlic, ginger and broccoli stems.   When they just start to turn bright green, add the florets and stir.  Add about 1/8 cup water and a sprinkle of sesame oil and pop the lid on for the florets to steam.  Just a minute or two- they should still be crisp.    This is also a perfect way to cook broccoli before you add it to an omelet or a quiche.   I also cut up broccoli and use it a pizza topping-  broccoli and cheese go together very well. 

Cauliflower-  My kids love cauliflower raw with dip and I love to roast it in the oven.   Cut up the cauliflower into bite size pieces trying to keep the florets intact.   Toss with a tiny bit of olive oil and salt and pepper and roast on a pan in the oven at 400 F for 10-15 minutes.  A squeeze of lemon juice on top and it’s a brand new vegetable with no need for gooey cheese sauce that hides the flavour and adds hundreds of calories. 

Broccoli Romanesco looks like an alien.   If you happen to see one buy it just for the fun shapes and textures.   It is more on the cauliflower side of the spectrum than the broccoli side for texture and flavour.  

Kohlrabi is another delicious freaky looking vegetable.   It forms on the stem of the plant and grows kind of like a lump in the middle.   Green or purple varieties.   Peel it and slice it and eat it raw or maybe with a little sprinkle of salt.