THE CRUCIFERS: CABBAGE

 

Cabbage is the world’s most popular vegetable, but in the USA, potatoes, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, corn, peas, and green beans are more popular than cabbage. We eat about one-fifth  as much cabbage as people in Eastern Europe, and one half as much as people in Western Europe.

People in the USA also prefer white cabbage, which has fewer anti-oxidants than all other types. In spite of this, it is still one of our most nutritious vegetables.

If you care about nutrition, look for red cabbage, and select heads that are compact, firm and heavy.Red cabbage has six times more antioxidants than green cabbage. Use it in stir-fry dishes, with carrots. Red cabbage is great in mixed green salads or in cole slaw. It is also great in borscht.

Cabbage can be stored in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator for weeks without losing many nutrients, although cabbage does lose its sweetness as time passes. For the best flavor, use it soon after purchase.

Cooking cabbage releases hydrogen sulfide, a foul-smelling gas. Steam the cabbage in a steamer basket for five minutes or less, to reduce the amount of gas. To fully cook it must be cut into half- inch slices. Toss the steamed cabbage with a little olive oil or butter, and sprinkle with roasted cumin seeds. Salt and pepper to taste.

Information is from Eating on the Wild Side by Jo Robinson.( 1913 Little, Brown and Company)

Image © by Ruth Zachary.

CRUCIFERS: BRUSSELS SPROUTS.

Cabbage and Friends                                                                                           © by Ruth Zachary

THE MUTANT CRUCIFER   (no image of Brussels sprouts available)

 

Brussels sprouts are a high nutrient vegetable, that researchers believe came from a kind of Kale, known as Flanders kale. They think a spontaneous mutation resulted in small cabbage like structures along the stalk.

Brussels sprouts became popular in England and France by the late eighteenth century. Thomas Jefferson brought the vegetable to the USA in 1812.

Many people do not like the taste of Brussels sprouts because of the bitter chemicals in the small heads,  sinigrin and progoitrin, but the health benefits are reason enough to eat them. Also, properly prepared, the bitterness can be reduced.

Select the bright green sprouts with tightly wrapped leaves. Avoid those that are wilted, yellow or have a strong cabbage odor, as they would have been harvested long before and will have lost most of their natural sugars and nutrients.

Brussels sprouts are credited with killing more human cancer cells than all other crucifers, effective against cancer of the breast, pancreas, stomach, prostate, and lung.

Frozen sprouts retain only 20 percent of their original nutrients. Treat them the same as you would treat broccoli. Refrigerate as soon as you get them home, eating that day or the next. Rinse and trim the stem just prior to cooking.

Steam on the stove top for six to eight minutes, depending on their size. Taste to check if done. Sprouts should be tender, but crunchy. Do not overcook. Toss with butter, olive oil, or vinaigrette, with salt and pepper. Serve with cream sauce or ranch dressing. Brussels sprouts are also excellent roasted in the oven, sautéed in olive oil and garlic, or occasionally in duck fat.

(Information from Eating on the Wild Side, by Jo Robinson. Little, Brown , and Company, Publisher.) Available on Amazon.

THE INCREDIBLE CRUCIFERS.

Illustration from AARP Magazine, 2014

Crucifers – these vegetables include arugula, cabbages, Boc choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, collard greens, kohlrabi, mustard greens, mizuna, wasabi, radishes and turnips.  Rapeseed grows in cool climates and is the source of canola oil. What they all have in common is flowers with four petals, arranged in a cross, how the name “crucifer” was derived. Most originated in the middle east. Roman conquerors brought these vegetables to the British Isles around 500 AD. Kale became very popular there.

Most of the crucifers have not been selected for sweetness or to remove bitterness, which nutritionally is an advantage for health, because they contain glucosinolates, and the more bitter, the better, (unlike Betty Botter’s bitter batter.) Kale and Brussels sprouts have the most. They offer more health benefits than most of the other fruits and vegetables we normally eat. Most crucifers are helpful in preventing cancer.

           

Most crucifers are rich in antioxidants, measured with an ORAC value (oxygen radical absorbance capacity.) Those foods with highest antioxidants are Kale and Strawberries, (not a crucifer) Broccoli, Grapefruit, and Grapes are next highest.

To realize their benefits, the vegetables need to be freshly harvested, but commonly lose 89 % of their potential value in harvest, shipped, warehoused, and displayed, and then stored in your refrigerator. Cooking further depletes their benefits.

Broccoli depletes very rapidly after it is picked. Broccoli needs to be chilled as soon as it is harvested, kept cool and eaten within two to three days. Most is grown in California or Arizona. If possible buy broccoli at a Farmer’s market. If you must store it, keep it in a microperforated bag in your crisper drawer. Look in the supermarket for dark green crowns and closed buds, with no evident yellowing, and firm stems. Cut ends should be moist and smooth. Best to buy a whole head of broccoli and prepare it right away.

Frozen broccoli is far less nutritious, as blanching destroys a third of its glucosinolates before it gets to the freezer..

Raw broccoli gives you up to twenty times more sulforaphane than cooked, which contains its anti cancer properties. Boiling or steaming for a maximum of four minutes is better than nuking it. They should be crunchy. They can be sauted in olive oil with garlic. A microwave destroys half of the nutrients in broccoli. (Information from Eating on the Wild Side, by Jo Robinson. Little, Brown , and Company, Publisher.) Available on Amazon.

Next  time– Brussels Sprouts.

PLEASE NOTE:

I am finding it difficult to keep up with daily tasks, and still have time to do some of the things that give me joy. I have a lot of yard work to catch up on. Because of that, I will try to write this blog three times a month, and hope that helps.

THE NOT-SO COMMON DANDELION

Dandelion Botanical Drawing by Regina O Hughes. From Common Weeds of the United States.

DANDELIONS  (Taraxacum officinale) – the greens were a springtime treat for Native American Indian tribes. Leaves may be eaten raw, steamed, boiled, added to soups. Dandelion leaves have 8 times more antioxidants than spinach, 2 times more calcium, 3 times more Vit. A and 5 times more vit. K and Vit E. than spinach.This rich nutritional resource should hardly be called common!

            If you include them in a salad, expect a strong flavor, but served with a sweet & sour mustard dressing, are very good especially in the spring.  Try to find pesticide free plants, and wash them very well. p 22-3- Eating on the Wild Side.

            The plant was naturalized from Eurasia, and also native to the U.S. Dandelions are a perennial herb with a taproot that can be more than a foot deep, that often breaks off if you try to dig them out. Usually they will grow back from a small bit of root left behind. They are not easily killed by herbicides.

            The seeds, carried widely on the wind find places to grow in many kinds of soils. They are common in a belt across the U.S. from east to west, but are less prolific in the southernmost states. (Drawing and this paragraph derived from Common Weeds of the United States,  prepared by the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, and published by Dover. 1971)

 Writing by Ruth Zachary, from information in attributed sources.