Broccoli comes from wild mustard, which flowers in order to reproduce.
In fact, many vegetables come from just that single plant - we’ve cultivated it in so many ways for so many years, we’ve got some very distinct varieties:
I once had someone accuse me of being bourgeoisie for eating Brussels sprouts.
That’s not why you’re bougie
It’s because of the light-up sneakers, isn’t it?
It’s because of your monocle and top hat.
You should’ve been eating cabbage like a good proletariat /s
So what is kohlrabi? Is it good? How do you eat/cook it?
Raw, it’s a little spicy, similar to radishes. Boiled, it’s very sweet. It can take the place of carrots and turnips in soups.
The simplest preparation that’ll give you an idea of how the ingredients tastes on its own: cut into thin slices and boil in water with a bit of salt and msg (I personally like to use chicken stock).
The outer layer is very tough and fibrous, so make sure to get rid of that first. Depending on the quality of the bulb, you might also end up with one that’s fibrous throughout. Those are not pleasant to eat, and if you happen to get one of those, I assure you that it’s not a typical experience.
Better than Brussels sprouts. Anything is better than that hell.
The sprouts actually taste better if you lightly blacken them, like asparagus. It’s one of the weird veggies where you go a little past maillard.
You can eat it cooked or raw, I personally prefer raw as a refreshing sweet snack.
It’s basically like a milder/sweeter turnip.
You eat it with your mouth, someone else will be along to tell you how to cook it
No I don’t. Hence the questions
So then if I eat mustard, I don’t have to eat the rest of that stuff?
I only know this because im a really shit gardener
Your loss becomes our gain or something.
For anyone in NE North America, our native Golden Alexander plant can be eaten in a similar way and tastes quite a bit like broccoli. As a bonus, it’s a host plant for black swallowtail butterflies, so it’s a wonderful addition to the garden!
My grandpa always leaves some of the veg he grows to bloom so he can take the seeds to plant in the next year. It’s really interesting to watch them develop!
Does it taste better when it blooms?
Grew broccoli for the first time this year. The answer is worse, chewier, stringier.
What I get from this: we eat broccoli before it reaches sexual maturation.
So you don’t enjoy eating fully grown broccoli, you enjoy eating prepubescent broccoli children.
I’m also realising that this is true of a lot of veg…
Vegetable veal
Green onion bulbs are a delicacy! You can eat the flower, but it’s not as juicy and a little papery.
Is it tasty?
What about cauliflower?
Once it blooms it turns bitter. Still edible, but a different flavor
Yes, you can eat the flowers. We combine them with regular broccoli in a saute. They make a pretty addition. The very end of the stems are also edible but anything more than an inch or two from the end can be woody.
I slice the stems into sticks and soak them in salt water for a day or two for a tasty snack. Make sure to cut the outer layer off for max absorbtion.
The broccoli and broccolini in my garden have grown so big it’s hard to keep up. This means I’ll sometimes eat bits that have begun flowering. I haven’t noticed much difference in the taste.
Broccoli is named after the family which invented it. The family line so exists with the last name of Broccoli and is quite wealthy.
I thought it was named after Lieutenant Broccoli of Star Trek fame.
A branch of the Broccoli family made the James Bond movies until they sold the rights for gigabux to Amazon.
