Broccoli has become a culinary star, out-pacing cauliflower, its cousin, in sales and popularity. (Photo by Gayl Punzalan)


Broccoli and cauliflower Kissing cousins


B 10 • Foodie 2012


ecause broccoli is dark green, it signals its virtues before you even have a mouthful. Cauliflower for all its paleness is no shrinking violet in the kitchen, either. Both are high in vitamins A, C and K and are full of fibre. Cauliflower provides a good source of manganese. Broccoli is the place to go for potassium. A cup of cooked broccoli will give you 97 percent


of your daily Vitamin C requirements. One stalk of raw broccoli provides as much vitamin C as 2 ½ pounds of oranges! Broccoli has become a star of the modern kitchen and should be a star in your veggie


patch, too, along with its cousin cauliflower. They are different cultivars of the same species. Broccoli is Brassica oleracea italica. Cauliflower is Brassica oleracea var. botrytis. As you can see, they are kissing cousins. They both have similar growing needs: they like it cool and mature late. Broccoli is not a traditional vegetable in these parts, indeed. It didn’t show up in North America until the 1920s, when it was brought over by Italian immigrants. However, it had been a hit in the Mediterranean for centuries and was mentioned by Pliny the Elder who well understood its shining qualities. Cauliflower, too, came from the Mediterranean, but it arrived in France and Britain


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