Broccoli

Brassica oleracea var. italica

vegetable

A firm stalk branching into small clusters of green buds, picked before their tiny yellow flowers open: a cabbage selected by the Romans. Chopped and left to rest before cooking, it forms sulforaphane, which brief steaming preserves.

Origin

Italy (selected by the Romans)

Season (United States)

June to November · grows in your region

Preparation

The stalk is eaten: peeled, it is sweeter than the florets; the leaves too. Chop it and let it rest half an hour before cooking: myrosinase then turns glucoraphanin into sulforaphane, which heat would prevent. Failing that, 3 to 4 minutes of steaming keeps far more than boiling water. Short steaming keeps its glucosinolates; long boiling carries them off. Most of its goitrogens go with cooking, even a short one.

Molecules

Flavonols (quercetin) · Lutein and zeaxanthin · Glucoraphanin → sulforaphane · Glucobrassicin → I3C · Vitamin C · Folates (B9) · Vitamin K1 · Calcium · Insoluble fibers · Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) · Chlorophyll · CholineIn small amounts, not counted Lignans · Spermidine · Vitamin B6 · Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) · Vitamin B8 (biotin)What slows things down Goitrogens

Did you know?

Its name comes from the Italian broccolo, “the flowering shoot”; it reached North America in the 19th century with Italian immigrants.