Top tips to make most of broccoli’s many benefits

This week, Rebecca learns about the benefits of broccoli, a nutritional powerhouse – and very tasty, too...

It may not be something that has crossed your mind before, but broccoli is a seasonal vegetable and is likely to be growing on a farm or in a greenhouse near you.

A nutritional powerhouse filled with minerals, vitamins and antioxidants, there are so many ways we can incorporate broccoli into our diets if it isn’t there already.

But, before we venture out into the big bad world of seasonal cooking, we spoke to some of the experts about how we should best grow it, store it and cook it.

Christopher Trotter, Fife’s food ambassador and author of many cookbooks including one called Broccoli, says that broccoli varies depending on the season.

He says: “The problem with broccoli is that it covers a multitude of sins.

“There’s calabrese broccoli, which is in season now and is the big chunky green type that everyone will be familiar with. It is in season between June and November.

“There’s also purple sprouting broccoli, which is usually in season from January to May, and there’s also tenderstem which is similar to purple sprouting broccoli, which tends to be year round.

“Usually tenderstem is unfortunately imported, so I tend to avoid it unless I know it’s specifically grown in this country.

“There’s also romanesco, which is a sort of cross between cauliflower and calabrese, and that will be in season just now as well.

“Calabrese is grown very widely in Scotland and a lot of people will be harvesting it just now, between June and November, so it’s quite a long season.”

Fiona Smith from Westerton Farmers in Laurencekirk grows broccoli regularly and explains: “Broccoli is relatively easy to grow at home, even if you don’t have a big garden, as it doesn’t take up too much space.

“If you stage the planting then you could probably get away with it right up until the end of June and that would keep you going throughout the season.

“Broccoli is a trickier one because it doesn’t actually keep for very long on the stalk once it’s ready and it really depends on how much you’re planting.

“If you put the seeds in a little pot in the greenhouse probably about March or April and planted it in May then you’d hhave the plant ready around July timee.

So hoow should we store broccoli? Des pite growing in warm condittions, once broccoli has sproutted it needs to be stored in the fridge otherwise it will start to wilt quuickly. Chrristopher says: “The best way to sttore broccoli is in the fridge to keep it cold, certainly at this timme of year, because it’s so wwarm in the house.

“Once broccoli is cut discolours very quickly.

“So I would get it in the fridge if you’re not going to use it straight away but the big thing is to buy little and often when it comes to broccoli.

“It’s very easy to get hold of at farm shops and in the veg boxes that people will be getting delivered.”

And the good news is that nothing need go to waste. Many people may not realise that broccoli can be eaten raw and that the whole plant, including the often disregarded stalks, can be used in cooking. it begins to go yellow and

The best way to store broccoli is in the fridge to keep it cold, certainly at this time of year, as it’s so warm in the house