Broccoli Blooms

Broccoli comes from wild mustard, which flowers in order to reproduce.

In fact, many vegetables come from just that single plant - we've cultivated it in so many ways for so many years, we've got some very distinct varieties:

Seriously?? Wow, a friend had been talking my ear off with brassicacea fact and failed to mention this? Thanks for sharing!
- Relevant xkcd
- B. oleracea gets all the fame.
  B. rapa never gets the respect it should.
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassica_rapa
  Bok Choi
  Bomdong
  Choy sum
  Komatsuna
  Mizuna
  Napa Cabbage
  Rapini
  Tatsoi
  Turnip
  Yellow Sarson
  Oil seed Mustard

The germans almost got it right with the naming

English	German	Comment
Cabbage	Kohl	"Cabbage?"
Brussel Sprouts	Rosenkohl	"Rose Cabbage"
Kolarabi	Kohlrabi	"Rabbi's Cabbage" ^I'm ^joking
Kale	Grünkohl	"Green Cabbage"
Broccoli	Brokkoli	"Brother's Cabbage" ^Jk. ^They ^fucked ^up ^here
Cauliflower	Blumenkohl	"Flower Cabbage"

my mind is blown
how much time did you spend on that table
Brussel sprouts are also called "Kohlsprossen" in some german speaking areas -> cabbage sprouts. Cauliflower is also called "Karfiol" ("Car-fee-ol which i dont have a fucking clue how it came to be.)

Kale, Kohl, add Cauli all come from the same Latin word caulis, btw.

I once had someone accuse me of being bourgeoisie for eating Brussels sprouts.
- You should've been eating cabbage like a good proletariat /s
- That's not why you're bougie
- I've found that anyone who uses bourgeoisie unironically can and should be ignored
So what is kohlrabi? Is it good? How do you eat/cook it?
- Raw, it's a little spicy, similar to radishes. Boiled, it's very sweet. It can take the place of carrots and turnips in soups.
  The simplest preparation that'll give you an idea of how the ingredients tastes on its own: cut into thin slices and boil in water with a bit of salt and msg (I personally like to use chicken stock).
  The outer layer is very tough and fibrous, so make sure to get rid of that first. Depending on the quality of the bulb, you might also end up with one that's fibrous throughout. Those are not pleasant to eat, and if you happen to get one of those, I assure you that it's not a typical experience.
- It tastes like broccoli stems. Some are more tender than others (just like with broccoli stems).
  I usually slice into little julienned pieces and marinate it in salt and acid for it to wilt into some kind of modified cole slaw.
- in addition to all the stuff people answered you can also cut it in about 1 cm thick slices, bread it and fry it in a pan like a schnitzel, which tastes awesome.
- You can eat it cooked or raw, I personally prefer raw as a refreshing sweet snack.
- It's basically like a milder/sweeter turnip.
- Better than Brussels sprouts. Anything is better than that hell.
- You eat it with your mouth, someone else will be along to tell you how to cook it
So then if I eat mustard, I don’t have to eat the rest of that stuff?
- Depends, mustard seeds yes. Mustard sauce also yes.
In the words of my lord and savior samonella
(I don't know if time stamps are copied on YTLITE, I'll check on my pc and if not edit the link)

I only know this because im a really shit gardener

Same, but it makes the bees happy.
- Always a good thing. Bees, hell insects in general are being obliterated by climate change.
Your loss becomes our gain or something.

My parents had some lettuce on their balcony but failed to harvest it in time so it grew taller and taller. They gave it to a friend as a birthday present and nobody could say what weird plant they had brought.

"Let us see if anyone else can guess", accompanied by aggressive eyebrow movements.
- Oh, you've met them.
That's called bolting, and it's no longer enjoyable to eat when it's done that.
- Eh, depends how much you enjoy intense bitterness and an upset stomach.
Wait till it flowers! It has a really nice inflorescence, although I think other Lactuca species are more beautiful overall :)

This is called "bolting" in gardening terms, when a plant goes to flower or seed.

Not exactly. It is bolting when it starts sending up a flowering stem, the very beginning of flowering. Every broccoli I've ever eaten has bolted, but not many of them have bolted and flowered.
- Huh, I've only heard bolting used when plants start flowering too early, before they've produced. Like lettuces or basil flowering before there are more than a couple leaves. Usually because they're too crowded or otherwise stressed.

For anyone in NE North America, our native Golden Alexander plant can be eaten in a similar way and tastes quite a bit like broccoli. As a bonus, it’s a host plant for black swallowtail butterflies, so it’s a wonderful addition to the garden!

My grandpa always leaves some of the veg he grows to bloom so he can take the seeds to plant in the next year. It's really interesting to watch them develop!

I... don't know enough about broccoli to figure out if this is a meme or not.

I don't know enough about memes to figure out if this is broccoli or not.
- And at this point I'm too afraid to ask
It is not, with broccoli and cauliflower you literally eat the buds, or how they are called in English, and they can of course flower.
- We call them "florets", which means "small flower"
- And butterflies love the flowers! All my broccoli went to flower (bolted) last year!
- In English it’s called a floret. Which hints at its true form

Does it taste good?

In my opinion, no. It is picked and consumed when the buds are still tight, if the head starts to loosen or the buds begin to open it has a more bitter taste to it.
- Related, but kale blooms look similar and I like the florets a lot in pasta (esp. mac & cheese).
- I hope that this does not catch you in the wrong frame of reference, but given your diverse dietary background I feel that this may be one of the least objectionable chances for me to query your memory regarding whether or not you may have ever by chance had the opportunity to also partake in the consumption (including subsequent digestion) of the testicular organs of any mammalian species, such as for example, the testicles of a non-humanoid primate, like of a monkey?
  -gin
Typically when plants flower they become more bitter. There are outliers but the general rule holds. Broccoli is better before it flowers fs

So do the flowers smell like a fart too?

If your broccoli smells like a fart then that means you have overcooked it in water.
Try roasting that shit, you will find that broccoli smells and tastes fucking fantastic.

Does it taste better when it blooms?

Grew broccoli for the first time this year. The answer is worse, chewier, stringier.
- Some plants make some bitter compounds when they go to seed so I would guess not.
It becomes bitter.
It’s closely related to mustard, and mustard’s distinct flavor is from the seeds. So I’d assume that if you leave it long enough for the blooms to seed, they’d taste similar to mustard. Most plants tend to get bitter after they bloom, because they send all of their nutrients to the flowers. And mustard does tend to be fairly bitter.
- Everything is a brassica.
- Does that make the flowers tastier?

What I get from this: we eat broccoli before it reaches sexual maturation.

So you don't enjoy eating fully grown broccoli, you enjoy eating prepubescent broccoli children.

I'm also realising that this is true of a lot of veg...

Vegetable veal
Yep, pretty much any leafy green or allum. Various others as well.

Is it tasty?

What about cauliflower?

Once it blooms it turns bitter. Still edible, but a different flavor
Yes, you can eat the flowers. We combine them with regular broccoli in a saute. They make a pretty addition. The very end of the stems are also edible but anything more than an inch or two from the end can be woody.
- I slice the stems into sticks and soak them in salt water for a day or two for a tasty snack. Make sure to cut the outer layer off for max absorbtion.
The broccoli and broccolini in my garden have grown so big it's hard to keep up. This means I'll sometimes eat bits that have begun flowering. I haven't noticed much difference in the taste.

Green onion bulbs are a delicacy! You can eat the flower, but it's not as juicy and a little papery.

In my experience, 'bulb' refers to the part that's in the ground. The part you pictured is called a 'scape'.
And yes, they are delicious.
You can also fry garlic flower bulbs. They’re called garlic scapes. They’re not as pungent as the bulb, but still have that distinct garlic flavor.
- Oh god I have not tried that! But can bet I will!

Broccoli is named after the family which invented it. The family line so exists with the last name of Broccoli and is quite wealthy.

That's what the Broccoli family (of James Bond fame) claims, but it's contested. The James Bond IP is the source of their wealth.
- Whoops, should have elaborated that was their source of wealth so people don't think they got rich from allegedly inventing broccoli (didn't know it was contested)
- Family members were in the veggie business in NYC I think. The name comes from Southern Italy somewhere.
I thought it was named after Lieutenant Broccoli of Star Trek fame.
A branch of the Broccoli family made the James Bond movies until they sold the rights for gigabux to Amazon.

Somehow the fact the flowers are a sickly yellow is a little bit disappointing

That's what color they are in the "visible" spectrum, I wonder what they look like if you added in the ultraviolet spectrum that bees and other insects can see
- Well, we can't really picture a color outside the visible spectrum. Just try to imagine a color you've never seen...