Spotlight on BroccoLeaf

There's a new vegetable hitting grocery store shelves, and I'm super excited about it.  It's called BroccoLeaf for obvious reasons - it's just the leaf part of a normal broccoli plant.  Obviously, these leaves are nothing new - they have been around for as long as people have been growing broccoli.  But only recently has it been discovered that they can be picked and eaten.

As you can imagine, BroccoLeaf is an amazing superfood.  It contains more calcium than skim milk, is an excellent source of Vitamins A and K, and contains more than 100% of the daily recommended level of Vitamin C.

I spotted BroccoLeaf at my local Natural Grocers last week.  I wasn't immediately sure what it was - it sort of resembled an enormous bunch of collard greens.   Once I realized what I had found, of course I had to take it home to give it a try.

It was so huge, it wouldn't even fit in the produce bag!  (A pretty good value at only $1.79)

Apparently BroccoLeaf works well for juicing and can even be eaten raw, but I chose to use mine to make this simple saute that was featured on the BroccoLeaf website.  It's pretty much the exact recipe I use to saute kale (minus the lemon juice), so I figured it would be a pretty safe bet.  I did add some mustard powder at the end to be sure that we were getting the most nutritional bang for our buck.

Even though we had a ton of BroccoLeaf for just myself and Jay, I decided to go ahead and cook the whole bunch.  Many greens reduce way down when you cook them, so I didn't want to risk not having enough.  As it turned out, the BroccoLeaf hardly shrank down at all, leaving us with a massive helping.  Good thing we love greens!

I really enjoyed the taste of the BroccoLeaf.  It wasn't anything crazy unusual, just a good solid green to add in to our rotation.  The taste was mild and not at all bitter.  In texture, it was much less wilty than spinach or kale - maybe more similar to swiss chard.

It was delicious served along side roasted tofu and quinoa, and topped with a little feta cheese.

You can bet I will be buying this green again!