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August 30, 2007 / Thursday
Broccoli Is Spicy?
I've been noticing it lately, now that I've learned to eat raw vegetables without salad dressing. (It's mostly because I'm lazy.) Carrots, sweet. Tomatoes, also sweet. Sweet peas, which I wouldn't eat until about a month ago, sweet! (Imagine that!) Bell peppers, sweet. Cauliflower, very very mildly sweet. Broccoli, not sweet. Somewhat disturbingly, it's also a bit spicy. Broccoli, my favorite vegetable growing up, is now the only one I need to eat with accompaniment. Huh.
[ Update: Actually, I just noticed that cauliflower is also a bit spicy, but it's so much smaller of a bit spicy than broccoli that I don't really mind the tingle on my tongue. ]
August 30, 2007 08:55 PM | Food
Comments
Cruciferous vegetables have a definite "spicy" side, even mild mannered cauliflower. According to the wikipedia thing they are in the same family as radishes, horseradish and apparently wasabi too, so it must be a family thing.
Posted by: Mike at August 31, 2007 05:01 PM
How strange, that my beloved broccoli is related to horseradish and wasabi, which I can't stand.
Posted by: Viv at August 31, 2007 05:31 PM
From Wikipedia- "The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family, as are its close cousins tobacco, chili peppers, potato, and eggplant."
Plants have some interesting groupings, indeed. (lettuce and cabbage can also get quite spicy near the stem part of the leaves as well)
Posted by: Mike at August 31, 2007 06:15 PM