How do you like to cook with broccoli leaves? Please let us know on our facebook page. And be sure to try our tasty broccoli recipes in the latest issue of Organic Gardener magazine. Site navigation. Best bet: bring in a consultant in your area for assistance. Or add them to your compost heap to feed your future garden soil. Good luck! This is my first year growing broccoli, its been so fun! I just picked a head last week that was a foot in diameter, I wish I could share the pic! I planted six plants, but two died at the beginning of the season.
Its funny how the florets turn themselves upside down sometimes. I wonder why. I love trying out interesting ways to use up more of a fruit or vegetable. I cook the leaves with the carrots, cauliflowers or broccoli and eat them too.
I always check to make sure the leaves and stalks are safe to eat. Thanks for the information. So in love with this site. Our first time at gardening. We are having so much fun learning and trying new things. We built a green house and have a lot of different veggies planted and growing. We get so excited to see all the growth.
So much fun. We are learning though threw sights like yours. Love this sight. Would love any tips from all of you. Thank you so much. The list of health benefits of broccoli leaves are as long and impressive as you would expect from a superfood.
The health benefits of consuming lots of broccoli leaves includes disease prevention, cancer prevention, and heart health, and the high-fiber content of broccoli leaves helps to keep our digestive system running smoothly. Eating healthy foods such as broccoli leaves can help the body detox, as well as help to fight inflammation.
Broccoli leaves can also help to improve skin health, and help to fight off macular degeneration and cataracts. Why are broccoli leaves considered a superfood when broccoli itself, and broccoli florets are not? This distinction is due to the high-levels of powerful nutrients found in the leaves of the plant, which are greater than what is found in the heads and florets. Broccoli leaves have higher levels of beta carotene, vitamin A, and phytonutrients than are found elsewhere in the plant.
You can start to take your first broccoli leaf harvest when the main head of the broccoli crown is still compact and in bud form, nestled several inches below the tops of the tallest leaves. The leaves will become less flavorful and develop a tougher texture if the harvest is postponed until the crown flowers begin to unfurl, so start your harvest early. Taking leaf cuttings this early in the growing season will also encourage new growth for future harvests.
Once a week, harvest the older, outermost leaves as they begin to reach four to six inches in length. After budding takes place, the head can be harvested. Afterwards, you can continue to pick the leaves until the growing season is over. Like many other greens that you can grow yourself, broccoli leaves are a very prolific cut and come again crop, constantly producing tasty new leaves that remain crisp and tender long after the rest of the plant has stopped producing.
Broccoli leaves look and feel very similar to collard greens , and can be used in lue of, or mixed with collards, chard, cabbage, and kale, though they have a flavor that is quite unique and distinct to broccoli leaves alone. The flavor is reminiscent of broccoli, and is slightly bitter, earthy, and slightly sweet.
Their sweetness increases as you apply a bit of heat, yet unlike many other common greens, broccoli leaves are not quick to wilting and will not cook down to a fraction of their original size once you turn up the heat. Harvest the smaller, younger leaves of the broccoli plant to mix with other leafy greens in a raw salad, as the smaller leaves are the most tender and have a milder flavor than the larger, more mature leaves of the plant.
Medium size leaves are the perfect size and texture to stuff with vegetables and meat like cabbage rolls. They can even take a quick sear on the grill try misting them with a little oil and seasoning with salt and pepper. You can make broccoli leaf chips the same way you make kale chips. Broccoli greens can be used in place of collards, kale, cabbage, or chard in many recipes, though they have their own distinct flavor.
The leaves taste earthy, mildly bitter, and faintly of broccoli which means people who are usually not fond of broccoli may take a liking to the leaves.
But if you harvest the central stalk before it grows too woody, you can peel the tough outer skin to reveal a crunchy sweetness underneath. Another variety, Spigariello , is a non-heading Italian broccoli grown for its leaves. You may have already eaten it and not known it! Which, by the way, are another misunderstood and highly underused green, since you can eat carrot tops too.
The rest of the brassica family gets no love either. All the leaves on cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, and cabbage plants the wide outer leaves, not the ones that form a tight head are usually tossed into the compost pile, but they are, in fact, percent edible and harvestable at any stage of growth. Considering the amount of water and resources it takes to grow a nutrient-dense and space-hogging broccoli plant, it feels like such a waste for commercial farmers to harvest the heads but discard the perfectly good leaves.
In loving memory of my omnivorous pug, Bebe, who passed away in June after a long and adventurous life. Broccoli was a large part of her homemade dog food. The No-Waste Vegetable Cookbook is my latest book. Garden Betty is where I write about modern homesteading, farm-to-table cooking, and outdoor adventuring — all that encompass a life well-lived outdoors.
After all, the secret to a good life is Read more ». Can you please take thoe o your list? I have been trying to figure out a way to use the broccoli plant more, and was always dissatisfied when I only got one or two heads every year, if I was even lucky enough to get one. I was close to just not planting any broccoli, but i wanted to give it a try.
I saw that we always had an abundance of leaves, so I thought we could use the leaves instead. This was a super helpful Article and I was extremely excited to tell my dad we could eat the leaves seeing as I have always loved the broccoli plant from a very young age. They are growing great with lots of leaves.
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