Broccoli

This week ingredient is broccoli. Lot of people don't like taste of it. Me personally have hated broccoli for a years. I tried to make myself eat it because it is really healthy. It is very interesting how changing the way of preparing the certain food or changing the recipe can effect the taste of specific ingredient and change it dramatically. I experimented and it worked! I adore broccoli now :)
HISTORY:
   Broccoli is vegetable which begin its trip to plates all around the world from Italy. The word broccoli, is derived from the Italian brocco and the Latin bracchium meaning arm or branch. Broccoli is a cultivar of wild cabbage, originated along the northern and western coasts of the Mediterranean, where it was apparently domesticated thousands of years ago. That domesticated cabbage was eventually bred into wildly different cultivars, including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, and brussels sprouts, all of which remain within the same species.
HEALTH:
Broccoli is great source of vitamin C, iron, fiber, vitamin A, calcium, zinc, carotene, magnesium, vitamin B, vitamin D. It contains antioxidants that prevent certain types of cancer, along diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. 
NUTRITION FACTS:
                                                                                      RDA/CUP

vitamin C          135.2%

vitamin K          115.5%

folate               14.3%

vitamin A          11.3%

manganese        9.5%

fiber                 9.4%

tryptophan        9.3%

potassium          8.2%

vitamin B            68%

vitamin B           26.4%

molybdenum        6%

phosphorus         6%

vitamin B          55.2%

protein             5.1%

magnesium        4.7%

calcium             4.2%

choline               4%

vitamin B            14%

vitamin E            3.5%

selenium            3.2%

vitamin B           32.8%

TIP:

Broccoli is eatable fresh and it is great in salads. I prefer it blanched because its green color become more intensive. But remember, when blanching broccoli, do not trough water away, use it later for soup because lot of good stuff from broccoli ends up in it ;)