Like every child born and raised in this century, I have always looked suspicious to the plate that sat in front of me at mealtimes. I cannot say I was too finicky, because I loved food so much (still do), but I wouldn’t accept weird, green stuff on my plate, especially when was hidden, on purpose, under my French fries. What?! I have bubble-gum in my hair or something like that? I am not stupid and you cannot fool me into eating your weird green things. I will show you how pissed off I am…and then the plate was flying in the air like a tennis ball. 😀 … I know, I was a tough kid! 😀

Leaving aside the French fries, which were almost descended from heaven, from my point of view, I would eat many other things, some more weird than others. One of these foods was cauliflower. Yes, cauliflower; that vegetable that resembles a big, white, almost fat flower. I would eat it in any shape or form…raw, baked, in puddings, pickled, and so on and so forth. I never protested and I preferred it in the detriment of many other vegetables… until one cursed day of autumn.

Let me explain this to you!

One day, going to the farmers market, accompanied by my dad, I see a nice lady that was selling vegetables and on her stall there was also a huge pile of cauliflower. Cool! I asked my dad if he wants to buy some cauliflower because it was in season. He agreed and we walked to the nice lady…and she asked:

– Hello! What do you want to buy?

Us:

-Hello! We would like to buy 4 pounds of cauliflower.

The nice lady:

-Right away! What about some BROCCOLI?

Us:

BRO… what?

-BROCCOLI…you don’t know about BROCCOLI? You should definitely try it, it’s a new product on our market and it’s amazing!

Because I didn’t knew what she was talking about I looked again and next to the white cauliflower I see an even huger pile of GREEN cauliflower.

I was in shock! A green cauliflower, a super green one, I mean very GREEN!!!

I was speechless, what they have done to my sweet friend, the cauliflower? They painted it, they coloured it, they brooked it; they did exactly what they did with the Easter eggs… this is the reason for which we now have blue eggs, purple eggs, green eggs, golden eggs. The age of white cauliflower was officially gone! We now eat green cauliflower… what the heck?

… So pissed. 😀

Us (under shock):

-No, thank you! We will stick to the 4 pounds of cauliflower, WHITE cauliflower.

This being said we just went home and forgot completely of what happened at the farmers market.

Years have passed and in my attempt to discover and to buy fresh and healthy produce (by this time my perspective on food changed dramatically) I went directly to the farmers market to buy some fruits and some vegetables. After 10 steps I saw the greenest cauliflower that I have ever seen in my entire life. Guess who? It was, again, Mr BROCCOLI himself. I was determined to find out more about this greenish, “fake” 😀 😀 cauliflower. I took out my wallet and I paid a pretty big amount of money on 1 single BROCCOLI, with the purpose of discovering why this cauliflower is so green and what is wrong with us people that we don’t accept vegetables as they are. 😀

…and I finally understood 😀

Mr BROCCOLI is not a green cauliflower, as I thought… it’s just the husband of the cauliflower, but just… you know… GREEN (tastes in man are not to be discussed 😀 ). It seems that both of them belong to the cruciferous family, which also includes other weird relatives, but we will talk about this in another blog post. Now, let’s focus on this damn BROCCOLI. 😀

It seems that Mr. BROCCOLI is a great king among vegetables and he brags that he also has astonishing properties and benefits for us, simple mortals. For the sake of this story, let’s see what Mr. Green face is talking about:

• rich in minerals: Phosphorus, Magnesium, Potassium, Manganese, Selenium, Calcium and Iron
• rich in vitamins: folic acid, vitamin K, A, B6, E, C, riboflavin, pantothenic acid
• excellent source of vegetable protein and fiber
• contributes to cardiovascular health and reduce the risk of arteriosclerosis
• strengthens the immune system and helps preventing degenerative diseases
• has anti-aging properties
• it is a good bone fortifier
• helps maintain a healthy nervous system
• very good food for those suffering from diabetes, due to the presence of chromium
• has antioxidant properties
• it supports the digestive system
• contains plenty of chlorophyll (obviously green) and helps in detoxifying the body

 

After learning so much positive things about BROCCOLI, I wanted to uncover at least one defect, one glitch; something that wasn’t just right about this “gentleman”… it couldn’t be this perfect. I mean… common, he is green; he must have at least one defect. So I decided to see how the taste of it was.

I ate it raw, in salads, with rice, with pasta, in the oven, etc… and I was surprised that it just tasted amazing!!! It wasn’t bad at all you guys. 😀 It is even worthy to be the husband of my beloved cauliflower.

I will say it out laud:

-BROCCOLI tastes amazing!!!

My friends, I know, it’s hard to believe that something so green can taste as good as this BROCCOLI does, but believe me, you have to be opened to try it at least once and you will be amazed. After all he is the king of the vegetables. This could not be for any reason, right? It’s tasty and healthy and… well, green… but GOOD! 😀

Let’s say that being green it’s his only flaw, after all he is full of chlorophyll and full of life and it seems happy all the time. 😀

… since that day at the market, we are just inseparable.

This son of a bitch… he got me! 😀