Fresh Ways With Broccoli

A true guardian of good health, broccoli was first mentioned in writings during the Roman Empire, but took till the 1920s to reach superstar status in North America. These days broccoli is touted as one of the most nutritious vegetables you can eat because of its high content of vitamins, fiber, and phytochemicals. Here’s how to pick, store, and prepare this super veggie.

At the Market

Seasonal Wisdom

Broccoli is at its best and most abundant in mid-fall through the winter.

How to Make Your Pick

When choosing broccoli, look for dark green heads and leaves and bright green stems. The stalks holding the florets should be slender and crisp and the florets themselves tightly closed and uniformly green. Yellowed, flowering buds are a sign of old age and a toughness that cannot be overcome with longer cooking.

In the Kitchen

Smart Storage

Keep broccoli in a plastic bag in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator for three or four days.

Prep Tips

Wash broccoli well. Peel tough skin from stalks with a swivel-bladed peeler or sharp paring knife, if desired. If cooking long spears with florets attached, slice spears lengthwise as far up as the florets. Also wash and cook the leaves, which are full of vitamins and good flavor. Add them to soups or stir-fries.

Cooking Basics

Use broccoli florets raw or briefly blanched in a large pot of lightly salted boiling water for snacks and party trays with dip. As a side dish, blanch, steam, sauté or stir-fry florets and chopped-up stems and leaves with a little added liquid for just 3 to 5 minutes. Short cooking time brings out the best flavor and color and helps prevent broccoli’s valuable vitamins from leaching out into the cooking water. It also prevents the breakdown of chemicals in broccoli that can release strong-smelling sulfur compounds that smell like rotten eggs. This may explain why you didn’t like broccoli as a child, when vegetables were cooked much longer.

Getting Creative with Broccoli

Raw broccoli is a favorite on raw vegetable platters or in salads. Broccoli florets can be sautéed with garlic and olive oil, added at the beginning of a vegetable stir-fry, or steamed and topped with cheese sauce, white sauce, or a low-calorie squeeze of fresh lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Sautéed broccoli florets can be used as a healthy pizza topping and as a delicious addition to a cheese-based quiche or omelet. Broccoli stems and leaves can be cooked in chicken broth as the base for a cream of broccoli soup: Puree the cooked broccoli, add milk or cream, and season to taste with salt, pepper, and a little dried oregano.

 Packed Into One Cup of Broccoli

• Less than 25 calories
• More than a day’s requirement for vitamin C
• Almost half a day’s requirement for vitamin A
• Folate to help fight birth defects
• Fibre to help control blood sugar
• Calcium to help fight bone disease
• Sulforaphane, a phytochemical that helps fight cancer
• Lutein a carotenoid that helps fight macular degeneration
• Indoles to fight cancer

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to sign up for our weekly food newsletter and receive more recipes, cooking tips and articles on healthy eating.