The benefits of broccoli
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What broccoli does
What this vegetable does
Held to replenish the Spleen and Kidney, settle how the gut works and build strength.
How to eat it
Steamed or boiled into a salad or a soup, it keeps its nourishment and tastes good.
A yakuzen note
Held to help strengthen the muscles and joints, and looked to for keeping the body strong.
This vegetable, driedDried broccoli →
Broccoli is held to replenish the Spleen and Kidney. It settles how the gut works and is a useful ingredient for poor digestion and low strength in particular. It can also be looked to for strengthening the muscles and bones, which suits growing children and adults who tire easily. Steamed or boiled into a salad or a soup, you take in its nourishment efficiently.
TOC
When broccoli is in season, the kinds, and how to choose
If you want to bring in what broccoli does, deliciously, knowing the season, the kinds and how to choose makes it easier to use. You get both the domed head of flower buds and the thick stem: it is the vegetable that stands for winter.
In season in winter, sweeter for the cold
Broccoli is in the shops all year, but its season is winter, roughly November to March. The cold makes it sweeter, and the buds can take on a purple tinge; that is a sign of sweetness and the taste does not suffer. The main producing areas shift with the season: Hokkaido in summer, Aichi, Saitama and Kagawa in winter. Consumption has grown to the point that it is a vegetable the table cannot do without all year, and it has been added to Japan's list of designated vegetables. Not only the buds but the stem is good to eat.
Sprouting broccoli, romanesco and others
Broccoli has relatives differing in shape and texture, so you can choose by dish.
| kinds | What stands out |
|---|---|
| Broccoli | The common one. A domed head and a thick stem |
| Sprouting broccoli (stick senor) | Long, slim stems with a texture like asparagus |
| Romanesco | Yellow-green and spiralled. Firm to the bite |
| Broccoli sprouts | Just-germinated shoots. Raw, in a salad |
Slim sprouting broccoli for stir-fries and colour in a packed lunch, romanesco when you want something to look at, sprouts when you want something clean and raw: choose by use. All of them can be blanched or cooked like ordinary broccoli.
How to choose it and how to use the stem
When choosing good broccoli, these points make it easier to tell.
- Deep green buds, domed and tightly packed
- No yellow flowers opened (once open the taste falls away)
- A fresh-looking cut on the stem, with no hollow inside
On a thick stem, peeling the tough outer skin generously reveals a sweet, tender part. Rather than throwing it away, slice it or cut it into sticks for stir-fries, kinpira or soup, and nothing is wasted.
How to eat broccoli
How you boil or cook broccoli changes both its texture and its flavour. Here is how to prepare it and the standard dishes.
How to boil or steam it
Break broccoli into florets and boil briefly in salted water. Overboiling makes both colour and texture watery, so lift it out once it turns bright green and drain it to cool naturally, and it will not go watery. Steaming, or covering it and cooking it in the microwave, keeps the savour and sweetness from washing away and gives a fuller taste. Cutting the florets to an even size makes them cook evenly. The stem takes longer, so putting it in a little before the florets brings everything together.
In salads, stir-fries and soups
Blanched broccoli makes a proper dish with nothing more than olive oil and salt, mayonnaise or katsuobushi. Fried with garlic or bacon, or stir-fried Chinese-style with egg or prawns, it becomes something of a feast. In a gratin, a stew or a potage, it adds colour and body. Crushed into a potage it becomes smooth and easy to eat. Dried products are handy too, and keeping something like dried broccoli, which you rehydrate for soups and cooking, in the cupboard helps when you want one more dish.
How to keep broccoli
Broccoli spoils easily after harvest as it tries to flower, so use it soon. To keep it raw, put it in a plastic bag and stand it stem down in the vegetable drawer of the fridge to hold its freshness. If you will not use it soon, blanch it on the firm side, drain it and freeze it in florets, ready to go straight from frozen into stir-fries and soups. You can freeze it raw in florets too, but blanching first holds the colour and texture better.
Alongside this, one likewise in season in winter and held to replenish the Spleen and Kidney, The benefits of Japanese yam a leaf vegetable likewise held to cool excess heat, and a fellow brassica, The benefits of daikon radish as a guide when building a winter table.
Broccoli, which sweetens in winter, is a useful vegetable where both buds and stem can be used and where how you boil it changes the taste. Avoid overboiling, bring in steaming as well, and you get the most of its sweetness and texture. Bring broccoli, sweeter in the cold season, to your everyday table.
