Where are on earth did purple sprouting broccoli come from? I cannot recall ever seeing it as a young child in the 1980s. Broccoli was green. That was a metaphysical certainty.
It seems the world of vegetables has been turned upside down. A yellow cauliflower, a purple potato, a black tomato: vegetable trends come fast and furious. One of our growers, Oisin, spends a lot of his time on heirloom varieties, attempting to peer into their subtle mysteries.
Surprisingly, there was a time when broccoli was not all green and tomatoes were not all red. Most homogenisation in the vegetable industry occurred with the advent of technological industrialisation. A return to all things weird and colourful is a backlash to this. So, the next time you see a vegetable that is not the ‘right’ colour, think old instead of new.
Purple broccoli is a cousin of ‘normal’ broccoli. It is leafier and much deeper in colour. Some people often refer to it as a diminutive purple cauliflower.
The word broccoli means small sprout and it hails from the same family as the cabbage. All broccoli originates in Italy as it was the Romans who produced it from cross-breeding.
Purple broccoli takes relatively little cooking. It’s beautiful raw in a salad. But I usually just blanch it briefly in boiling water. For about a minute, with a little butter. No more. My late Nana used to cook broccoli for about an hour; start it off in cold water and then boil it vigorously until she had a soup-like substance. A fork and spoon was required. Perhaps a straw would have not gone amiss.
My own daughter told me my broccoli was too hard, and she preferred Mammy’s because you can suck it. Some traditions die hard.
Spring lamb and loads of purple broccoli. And a glass of Pinot Noir.
