These days both professional chefs and home cooks are looking for new and nutritious ways to cook vegetables. One of the latest additions to Western vegetable repertoire is a member of the mustard family called broccoli rabe. Its bright green leaves and broccoli-like flowers pack a huge nutritious punch and is becoming more widely available.
What is Broccoli Rabe
Pronounced [rob], it’s also called rapini [rah-PEE-nee], raab [rob], and even turnip broccoli. This vegetable is a member of the brassica genus and is related to cabbage, kale, cauliflower and mustard. Even though the word broccoli is commonly used in its name, it’s not the same plant as the floret-headed vegetable that is most familiar to Western eaters.
What Does Broccoli Rabe Look Like
WhatsCookingAmerica.com says, “Good-quality broccoli raab will have bright-green leaves that are crisp, upright, and not wilted. Avoid ones with leaves that are wilted, yellowing, or have dark green patches of slime.” The flowers resemble single florets of common broccoli, and can be eaten along with the leaves. Some call this turnip broccoli, because the leaves are similar to turnip greens.
Where Broccoli Rabe Grows
This leafy, nutritious vegetable originated in the Mediterranean and China. It is possibly the most widely consumed leafy green in Hong Kong, and it’s very common in Southern Italy. Only recently has it become popular in the United States and Canada, and it is now grown in Ontario, Quebec, California, Arizona and New Jersey.
Nutrients Found in Broccoli Raab
Broccoli Rabe is highly nutritious and contains many of the same cancer-fighting elements as its cruciferous relatives. It is high in phytochemicals such as sulforaphane and indoles, which are believed to help the body naturally defend itself against certain cancers.
It has a mere 20 calories per one cup raw, 3 grams of protein and 72 mg of vitamin C and 7.6 mg of beta-carotene. It is also a good source of vitamins A and K as well as potassium.
Broccoli Rabe Recipe
- First, wash the rabe under cool running water and remove the tough lower part of the stems.
- Drop the rabe into a pot of salted, boiling water and blanch for one or two minutes.
- Remove the leaves and dunk them into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.
- Drain off the ice water, drizzle with olive oil and seasoning of choice, and enjoy!
Other ways to cook include steaming, stir-frying and sautéing, whichever suits the dish. It’s a wonderfully versatile plant, and is quickly becoming a staple in many homes and restaurants. Find it in the produce section of the grocery store, or find out if it's grown locally.
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