Commitment to Crucifers

Stir-Fried Baby Bok Choy with Shiitake Mushrooms

Always in pursuit of the Cruciferous Veg, a couple days ago I made a dish from The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen. I don't want to publish a copyrighted recipe -- suffice it to say it had all the right stuff, bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, and lots of Asian flavorings like sesame oil. It really hit the spot. Very delicious and Lindy liked it. He's getting the leftovers today for lunch along with -- wait for it -- the rest of the liver.

So why cruciferous (or cruciform) veg?

The extent of the benefits of cruciferous veg, combined with the amount of information available on it, makes it hard to summarize. The star of the show seems to be sulphoraphane. This phytochemical, among others,

"are capable of detoxifying certain carcinogenic substances. They prevent precancerous cells from develping into malignant tumors. They also promote the suicide of cancer cells and block angiogenesis."

 David Servan-Schreiber, Anti-Cancer

Angiogenesis is the process of building blood vessel systems that support cancer tumors.

There's also this thing called glucosinolates, whose function is more complicated. If you read up on this, you have to get through paragraphs like this. If you have a good translation, please leave it in the comments:

"Glucosinolates that were stored in one of the compartments of broccoli cells are thus exposed to myrosinase, an enzyme found in another compartment whose role is to cleave off some parts of the glucosinolate molecules. When broccoli is chewed, the vegetable's main isothiocyanate, glucoraphanin, suddenly finds itself in the presence of myrosinase,and is immediately turned into sulforaphane, a powerful anticancer molecule. To put it another way, the anticancer molecules in cruciferous vegatables occur in an inactive state in whole vegetables, but chewing these vegetables releases active compounds that can then carry out the anticancer functions described later."

Richard Beliveau, Ph.D. and Dr. Denis Gingras, Foods to Fight Cancer 

Have you got all that? Here maybe this will clear it up from the Beliveau book:

The essential information is: broccoli, cabbage, bok choy, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, etc. Eat them. They're good.

We try to have one of these several times a week. I make the leafy greens that Lindy actually prefers for alternating meals.

According to Huffpost article, Raw or Cooked? How Best to Prep 11 Fruits and Vegetables, 

"Don’t boil cauliflower in water because that loses the most antioxidants. Water-boiling and blanching causes the worst loss of minerals and antioxidant compounds in cauliflower because many of the nutrients get leached into the water. Steam or sous vide cauliflower to maintain nutrients."

As for broccoli, "Sous vide or steamed broccoli to keep antioxidants. Steamed broccoli retains color and texture. Boiling broccoli for 9-15 minutes loses up to 60 percent of nutrients, which become leached into the water. Stir-frying loses the most vitamin C and nutrients."

Check out the article for more info on how to cook veg without losing their useful phytochemicals.

Put your recipes for crucifers in the comments!

Lisa