Kitchen Garden Forum

This post is partly to share what some of you don't know, and partly to ask for advice to those who do.

There is one thing I find absolutely terrible -and I really mean it- and this thing makes me feel very bad for wasting so much nutritious plant parts. That is when I have to throw away the whole plant just to only use the flower of it. Yesterday I discovered that leaves of broccoli and caulifllower -especially the stem and leaf veins- are very much edible! I've read how the leaves contain even larger amounts of vitamins and nutrients than the actual cauliflower or broccoli itself. As I read the leaves can be used for soup, salad, stir-frying and even more...

What would you use the leaves for and how? And what other plant parts are edible that nobody expects to be?

You used to be able to buy "tops" from our local veg shop, brussels in particular. I have eaten the tops from Broad beans as well, when you pinch them out to deter black fly, raw as an addition to salad.

I chop up the stems of kale and brocolli and steam them until soft-ish - then swirl a knob of butter and sprinkle with a little pepper. Or garam masala or poppy seeds and lemon juice. Really tasty. The leaves of kale are lovely chopped up and added to the rice when making a curry or other savory rice dish. Just add them about 5 mins before the end of cooking. Or steam the leaves separately and stir into the rice when you serve it up. I also eat the berries of the fuchsia bush - when the flowers have gone over and turned into black fruit.. Tastes tangy and sweet.

Seems very tasty to me! I just chopped kale leaves through an Italian pasta dish, about to try it. Perhaps this topic would have been a better one for Readers Recipes...

If your seed packet has loads of seeds and you only want 6 or 12 cauliflowers, just prick out 12 or 24 and leave the rest in the seed tray till they're about six inches high, cut with scissors and eat in whatever way you fancy.
Smaller are nice as a peppery salad.

You can eat every part of brassica's, even the thick stems if cut finely & give crunch to a stir fry! Learn what you can't eat, then the rest is easy - be creative, find what you like & eat the whole lot. You deserve to get every bit of your crop as you grow in challenging conditions - don't forget the mushrooms in the bottom of the wardrobe either - or other dark place you may have!

When I was a child, my mother, when preparing cabbage, would quarter it, then trim out the centre stalk sections and give to me to eat raw! I remember it tasting quite nutty and fresh.

Mushrooms , I've been growing them the last couple of months ,when I say growing them I open the box and water ,the first lot was from wilkies I had a total of four waste of time it's the second and last lot I've bought from them ,the second try was shiitake from merryhills first batch I had about 2 kilos all at one go I followed the instructions and soaked the the block for half an hour I've sprayed water on it every day for around three weeks no sign of anymore in till I looked tonight and found six very large ones I'm now hoping for more ,the last lot are from merryhills again this time a grow box I've been watering this for a week and have small mushrooms just starting ,watch this space as the saying goes

I just chopped kale leaves through an Italian pasta dish, about to try it. Perhaps this topic would have been a better one for Readers Recipes...

I've been doing that with mustard leaves through the winter, works well as a light pasta dish. I'm not a fan of heavy cream based sauces much prefering lighter treatments.

I've always eaten the leaves and stalks of cauliflower and broccoli. It seems such a waste to throw them away and compost them. I use the stalks chopped up in salads or soups.
In fact on occasions when I,ve been making soups in the past and wanted some extra bulk for them, I have not been beyond scrounging discarded outer cauliflower leaves from our our local market veg stallholder. He was only too happy to get rid of them.