We’ve been told time and time again how good broccoli and its fellow cruciferous vegetables — cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower among them — are for us. Plenty of us need no admonishment to eat them, but I admire any skeptics who are willing to be open-minded and give them a try.
If you find the smell off-putting, it’s not just your imagination. As Harold McGee explains in “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen,” these types of vegetables, like onions, have “defensive chemicals in their tissues.” When the plant cells are damaged, most notably by extended cooking, the chemicals interact and start “a chain of reactions that generates bitter, pungent, and strong-smelling compounds.”
But that’s not inevitable. Whether through cooking strategies or flavors, there are ways to ease yourself into enjoying cruciferous vegetables. Here are a few of them.
