Please Allow Me to Introduce You to Broccoli Rabe.

            If your mother made you eat squash when you were ten, and you didn’t like it, you need to try it again.  We shun many foods and flavors as adults because we didn’t like them as children or our parents never gave them to us. Consequently, we think they’re strange.  Many people are reluctant to try new taste sensations and therefore eat only what’s familiar to them.

            Like many children, I disliked anything that was bitter and refused to eat any vegetable I thought tasted bitter. As a young adult, I continued with this mindset and avoided all dark green vegetables. Then when I discovered my husband enjoyed broccoli rabe, a bitter, dark green, leafy vegetable, I decided to try it. I enjoyed it! Subsequently I tried all the dark green vegetables I’d been avoiding. Eating those foods introduced me to additional nutrition, fiber, and new taste sensations.  

          If you are going to cook, I want you to get maximum nutrition for the time you spend in the kitchen.  I encourage you to buy and cook foods that are powerhouses of nutrition.  Ones you might not normally eat.  Any nutritionist will tell you the more varied your diet the healthier you will be. 

          If you have never tried broccoli rabe (also called broccoli raab, raap, or rapini) I invite you to try it.  This vegetable looks like skinny broccoli heads with a lot more leaves.  You eat the entire thing, head, leaves and stem.  The stem is much thinner than regular broccoli and therefore more tender.  Buy it when it’s green and before the buds have turned yellow.  Broccoli rabe is a common vegetable in southern Italy, Portugal and China.  Its flavor is slightly bitter.  When you cook it with oil and garlic, the sharpness softens and it becomes quite delicious.

          Buy only a pound just to try it.  If you don’t like it, you needn’t eat it ever again, but you won’t know if you don’t try.  Cut the broccoli rabe into small pieces.  Cut garlic into very small piece and cook the garlic in extra virgin olive oil until it is golden.  Add the broccoli rabe to the hot oil and add salt---1/4 teaspoon for 1 pound.  Mix well, do not add water, cover and cook until the broccoli is soft.  Taste a piece to be sure.    

           We were born with a preference for sweet tasting foods; after that, all of our taste preferences are learned.  As America’s Cooking Cheerleader, I encourage you to retrain your taste buds and try foods you haven’t tasted in years as well as those you have never tasted before. You may discover that foods you have been avoiding taste delicious today.  As a fun side note, I admit to giving liver another try and I still dislike it!

Cooking is easier than you think and you and your family are worth the time and effort it takes. 

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