Tasty Tuesday: Versatile Vegetable Broccoli

Broccoli is a cabbage family vegetable grown for its nutritious flower heads. The health benefit of broccoli is very extensive, not only is the vegetable loaded with essential nutrients, it also has therapeutic properties.

It contains high levels of fiber and is a rich source of vitamin-C. In fact, just a 100 gram serving of broccoli will provide you with more than 150% of your recommended daily intake of vitamin C, which in large doses helps fight against flu causing viruses. Broccoli is also rich in vitamin A, iron, vitamin K, B-complex vitamins, zinc, phosphorus and phyto-nutrients. Phytonutrients are compounds which lower the risk of developing diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.

Health Benefits:

• Vitamin A in broccoli is essential for healthy eye-sight and helps prevent from macular degeneration of the retina in the elderly population.
• Fresh heads are an excellent source of folates, which when consumed during pre-conception, and pregnancy helps prevent neural tube defects in the offspring. 
• Consumption of Broccoli prevents osteoarthritis due to a compound it possesses named sulfophane.
• The flower heads have some amount of omega-3 fatty acids, which reduces the incidence of sudden cardiac death in patients with myocardial infarction. 
• Furthermore, it is also a good source of minerals like calcium, manganese, iron, magnesium, selenium, zinc and phosphorus.
  
  Broccoli as a vegetable is truly power packed with nutrients, whether you’re serving broccoli as a side dish, in a soup, salad or as the featured vegetable with an entree, it is a delicious way to put more fiber in your diet. Today’s quick and easy broccoli recipe that I would suggest trying is Fried Broccoli.

Fried Broccoli

Total Time: 8mins

Prep:  3mins; Cook:  5mins

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces

1 Garlic and onion powder

1 -2 tablespoon olive oil

1⁄2 cup breadcrumbs

White pepper& salt

DIRECTIONS 

In a frying pan heat olive oil. Put in a pinch of garlic and onion powder and saute until the scent gets very pungent. Add broccoli and a couple of dashes of white pepper (2-4). Saute until the broccoli gets very green but looks crunchy/cooked. Lastly, toss in bread crumbs a bit at a time while still sauteing. The crumbs will start to stick into the broccoli. Once all or most of the crumbs are in the broccoli, saute for 1 or 2 minutes longer to brown. Serve right away. 

Recipe courtesy www.food.com.

Tune in every Tuesday for more interesting nutritional recipes.