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Recipes for Health: Broccoli
Many parents appreciate broccoli because it’s one vegetable that their children will eat, so long as it isn’t overcooked  broccoli requires only 4 to 5 minutes of steaming, or 2 1/2 minutes of blanching in salted boiling water. But what about broccoli for adults? How much plain steamed broccoli do you really want to eat?
We rarely base a meal on this healthy food, yet there are plenty of ways to move it to the center of your plate. For main dishes, I am most likely to use broccoli in a salad, a soup or pasta (Asian or Italian). Those little flowers  the crown of the broccoli is the plant’s flower  are like sponges for tasty sauces, dressings and broths.
Like other cruciferous vegetables in the Brassica family (kale, collard greens, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower), broccoli contains sulfur-containing phytonutrients that have gotten a lot of attention from nutritionists for their potential cancer-fighting properties. It’s packed with vitamins C, A, K and folate, as well as with fiber. And broccoli is a very good source of manganese, tryptophan, potassium, B vitamins, magnesium, iron, calcium, zinc and vitamin E  all in a pretty, tasty, cook-friendly package.