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There are a lot of fruits and vegetables out there, some offer more nutrients than others, but today we are going to talk about the benefits of broccoli.
Up front you should know that I am not a Dr or Nutritionist, so you should seek medical advice from a trained professional before making any changes to your diet.
I wasn’t aware of this myself until I came across this on a YouTube video, then I had looked into it, but broccoli is man made. Meaning it isn’t necessarily “natural”.
Broccoli came about by human intervention. It was bred out of Brassica oleracea (cabbage plant). There are a number of different vegetables that we eat that would not have came about without human intervention.
It was cultivated to taste better than other options of the time. I find broccoli to be tasty on salads or even mixed in scrambles for breakfast burritos or other dishes.
Health benefits of broccoli?
Broccoli is packed full of vitamins and minerals as well as fiber and antioxidants. You should know by now that once you cook any type of food, it will lose some of its nutritional value, broccoli is no different.
For context one cup of broccoli contains:
- Vitamin K: 116%DV
- Magnesium: 5.95mg
- Zinc: 0.12mg
You get that and more with just 1 cup of raw broccoli.
Broccoli contains a good amount of antioxidants which might help reduce damage caused by free radicals, reduce inflammation and prevent cellular damage in your eyes.
If you spend a lot of time out in the sun, studies in animals and humans, show that broccoli may protect against the damage from UV rays which can lead to skin cancer.
Broccoli can help build strong bones, with the calcium and vitamin K. Studies also show that the sulforaphane in broccoli might be able to prevent osteoarthritis, no one wants that!
We know that vitamin C is really good for immune health and that broccoli contains plenty of it, this could help keep you from catching nasty bugs.
Keep your mind and nervous system in good shape with the nutrients and compounds found in broccoli. With that said, currently there are no human studies of it but in animals there have been numerous studies done and its promising.
You should know by now that oatmeal is good for your heart and heart disease, but broccoli can help in that department as well. Broccoli helps by lowering the bad LDL levels and raising the good HDL levels, which might lower your chances for a heart attack.
A number of studies have shown that broccoli and other cruciferous can help reduce your chances of getting some cancers like breast cancer, bladder cancer, prostate cancer and colorectal cancer.
There are more studies needed to better determine what all in broccoli can help with all of these different ailments, but things are looking good so far!
Buying broccoli from the store?
I have tried this year to grow some broccoli, but that didn’t work out so well. The high temp’s we had ended up bolting the leaves of the plant’s and they didn’t make it.
So we have been buying broccoli from the store, you can get fresh broccoli or frozen. I prefer frozen broccoli, due to the fact that it does have more nutrients and it does last longer than fresh broccoli.
I did in the past only buy the fresh heads of broccoli at the store, but I never found the time to use it up in time and I would always toss out half of the head because it eventually went bad.
Fast forward to today, along my health food journey, i’ve discovered some ways of preserving them way better than I did when I started buying the heads of broccoli.
Some prefer fresh broccoli over frozen due to the fact that it can be more crisp fresh, especially in salads. You could just thaw some out and then press dry to add them to a salad, but that does take more time.
How to grow broccoli?
Like I mentioned above, I didn’t have much luck this year with broccoli. Broccoli is more of a cool weather plant.
It is best to start the seeds indoors around 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost. This will range depending on your location. If you want broccoli in the fall you can seed directly into the soil/ground midsummer, or when ever the forecast for wicked heat is done for the season.
When planting the seedlings outside after the final day of frost, be sure to plant them 1′-2′ apart, keep in mind that they will need around 8 hours of direct sunlight a day, so don’t plant them in the shade.
Keep in mind that in order to prevent disease and insects you should plant them in a different spot than last year. Also try some landscaping cloth or laying down some mulch DO NOT USE RUBBER MULCH this can cause toxins to leech into the soil and the vegetables/fruits . This can help with the weeds also.
Broccoli is ready to harvest when the head is around 4″-7″ and the florets are your desired length. The florets should be a deep dark green, if their yellow/brown it means it’s starting to bolt, so harvest these right away.
Simply cut the head off of the base stem when harvesting. try to avoid sawing at it. Use a sharp knife.
How to store Broccoli?
There are many ways to store your broccoli whether you bought it from the store or grew your own. The easiest for me is just buying frozen broccoli and tossing it into the freezer when we get home.
Freezing Broccoli from the garden!
The most important part of freezing any fresh produce is that you need to make sure you wash it before you freeze it. This will help wash away the dirt and any bacteria or viruses that have landed on the broccoli from the ground to the store shelf.
After its all washed, you’ll want to cut the florets off, try to get them all around the same size. I like the stems myself, but you can chop them off if you don’t. although they do store a lot of nutrients there.
Now is the time to get a bowl of cold water and ice. this is needed to cool them off and stop the cooking process after their blanched.
You’ll need to blanch the florets. Boil a pot of water, get a rolling boil. I usually add a pinch of salt when I boil things, this isn’t needed though.
You’ll want to put them in the boiling water and cook them for about 2-5 minutes, then transfer them directly to the ice bath. Let them set in there for roughly 3 minutes or so.
You’ll want to get them out of the ice bath and lay them all out and try to get off as much moisture as possible.
Now you can either toss them in a freezer bag, filling them up or just putting in as much as you think you’ll need for any given meal. This method will usually freeze them all together.
If you would rather. you can lay them out of a baking sheet in the freezer, spread them out. freeze them like that for 2-3 hours. Now you can put them in a freezer bag and put them back in the freezer to store.
Either way, they should last up to a year in the freezer.
Storing fresh broccoli?
With fresh broccoli, you might get 5 days out of them before they go bad. It’s usually 2-3 days.
Make sure you don’t wash the broccoli before putting it in the fridge, only give it a good wash before eating, or freezing it.
What you can do though is wrap the heads in a damp paper towel and store them in the fridge. Do not store them in a plastic bag or wrap and don’t store them in a container.
Canning broccoli?
There are ways to can broccoli, but since I’ve never done that myself, I would suggest you open your canning guide book, it should have multiple recipes for canning broccoli.