Eat Broccoli Leaves? Brussels Sprouts? Cauliflower?

I have big, beautiful broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, and Cauliflower plants that aren't producing yet. Is there something I can do with their leaves? Can they be used like cabbage? Cooked? Raw? Mixed in with kale?

Yes to all of that!  Smoothies, too.  I grow broccoli and bs just for the leaves since I can't get them to do much else, but they are usually puny.
Lucky you.  Wish I had big beautiful leaves....  Do you have photos so I can ?
CC

On the sprout plant only take the bigger older best quality lower outer leaves , don't take them from the crown of the plant or you'll stunt it .
 Good strong healthy Brussels sprouts plants can easily reach three foot six tall ( 1.1 mtr )

 When I was a kid in the 1950's Mum & Dad used to cut the sprouts off the stems from the bottom up , starting a few weeks after the first frosts in the 21 x 21 foot square of sprout plants  .

This carried on even in deepest winter through to March ,  just as cabbage greens became very expensive  due to scarcity after winter & when the spring greens hadn't quite reached a decent enough size to take two for the six of us .

So on Saturday afternoons after Dad got home from work , he'd use a big heavy spade to dig two whole sprout plants up and put them in the shade of the shed on the sunless North side .  During the week Mum would take off the remaining sprouts then use the axe to chop off the whole crown for us to have as a dark cabbage . The stripped stalk & roots were then chopped into 6 inch lengths which we fed to our meat rabbits or the chickens . as fresh greens.

plantoid wrote:On the sprout plant only take the bigger older best quality lower outer leaves , don't take them from the crown of the plant or you'll stunt it .
 Good strong healthy Brussels sprouts plants can easily reach three foot six tall ( 1.1 mtr )

 When I was a kid in the 1950's Mum & Dad used to cut the sprouts off the stems from the bottom up , starting a few weeks after the first frosts in the 21 x 21 foot square of sprout plants  .

This carried on even in deepest winter through to March ,  just as cabbage greens became very expensive  due to scarcity after winter & when the spring greens hadn't quite reached a decent enough size to take two for the six of us .

So on Saturday afternoons after Dad got home from work , he'd use a big heavy spade to dig two whole sprout plants up and put them in the shade of the shed on the sunless North side .  During the week Mum would take off the remaining sprouts then use the axe to chop off the whole crown for us to have as a dark cabbage . The stripped stalk & roots were then chopped into 6 inch lengths which we fed to our meat rabbits or the chickens . as fresh greens.

Wow! I have yet to see an actual sprout or broccoli head but we will definitely be eating leaves, today.

CapeCoddess wrote:Yes to all of that!  Smoothies, too.  I grow broccoli and bs just for the leaves since I can't get them to do much else, but they are usually puny.
Lucky you.  Wish I had big beautiful leaves....  Do you have photos so I can   ?
CC

YIKES! I don't know if I have broccoli or Brussels Sprouts. I think it's broccoli so I'll plant more Brussels Sprouts, today. 

Broccoli?


Kale


Cauliflower

countrynaturals wrote:I have big, beautiful broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, and Cauliflower plants that aren't producing yet. Is there something I can do with their leaves? Can they be used like cabbage? Cooked? Raw? Mixed in with kale?

I have eaten leaves from my broccoli and cauliflower.  I cut them up thinly and saute them without the stem with garlic or onion.  I don't harvest more than 20% from the growing plant.  Other people use the very large leaves for stuffing with a type of ground meat.

Yes!  I like the leaves for cabbage rolls.  Plus, in the spring, or when ever they go to seed in each area, the flowers are so sweet and the bees love them.  One for the bees, one for me. . .

CC, I'll take a photo of the broccoli and cauliflower just for you.

CN, lovely brassicas.

Thanks Sanderson!

Didn't realize that you could eat the flowers, too. I mean, I've put them in smoothies but never tasted one. Good to know. Wonder if we can eat radish flowers, too, and if they are spicy...?

countrynaturals wrote:

plantoid wrote:On the sprout plant only take the bigger older best quality lower outer leaves , don't take them from the crown of the plant or you'll stunt it .
 Good strong healthy Brussels sprouts plants can easily reach three foot six tall ( 1.1 mtr )

 When I was a kid in the 1950's Mum & Dad used to cut the sprouts off the stems from the bottom up , starting a few weeks after the first frosts in the 21 x 21 foot square of sprout plants  .

This carried on even in deepest winter through to March ,  just as cabbage greens became very expensive  due to scarcity after winter & when the spring greens hadn't quite reached a decent enough size to take two for the six of us .

So on Saturday afternoons after Dad got home from work , he'd use a big heavy spade to dig two whole sprout plants up and put them in the shade of the shed on the sunless North side .  During the week Mum would take off the remaining sprouts then use the axe to chop off the whole crown for us to have as a dark cabbage . The stripped stalk & roots were then chopped into 6 inch lengths which we fed to our meat rabbits or the chickens . as fresh greens.

Wow! I have yet to see an actual sprout or broccoli head but we will definitely be eating leaves, today.

 Put ,  "  Brussels sprout tops "  into Google the look in Google images .

  The best tops are from the tight spiral plants as they are tighter on spread than a plant that all leggy & sparsely populated with Brussels .

 If ever you get seeds that give you 3 foot plus stalks let two run to seed  , for theses days most sprouts are commercial strains with short 2 foot long easily harvested by machinery stalks with not much top .

plantoid wrote: If ever you get seeds that give you 3 foot plus stalks let two run to seed  , for theses days most sprouts are commercial strains with short 2 foot long easily harvested by machinery stalks with not much top .

Good idea

Well, I figured out why I haven't been getting any Brussels sprouts plants. My seeds are from 2012.