We’re used to using the more common parts of broccoli and its relatives, like the vegetable heads and florets.
What a lot of us don’t know is that you can use the leaves of broccoli, too. They can be eaten fresh, raw, or cooked into numerous dishes.
You can choose leaves from the plant or use leaves that happen to come on the heads of broccoli.
You can start harvesting and using broccoli leaves from your plants long before there are heads and florets to pick.
This is all good news for the fresh broccoli shopper and home garden broccoli grower – get more for your money, time, and effort!
Jump to:
- 12 Ways to Use Broccoli Leaves
- 1. Slaw
- 2. “Cabbage” Rolls
- 3. Stir Fries
- 4. Shred and Sauté
- 5. Chopped Into Salads
- 6. Soups
- 7. Dried Vegetable Powder
- 8. Broccoli Pesto
- 9. Creamed Greens
- 10. Add to Pasta Dishes
- 11. Substitute for Brussels Sprouts
- 12. Substitute for Other Hardy Greens
- Selecting and Picking Broccoli Leaves for Cooking
- Get More Goods from Your Garden by Using Uncommon Edible Plant Parts!
12 Ways to Use Broccoli Leaves
What are some ways you can use the leaves of broccoli? How can you make better use of your broccoli patch, harvest more, and waste less of your garden?
Here are 12 top tips to get you going!
*Note – the same tips and uses listed here for broccoli can be used interchangeably with the leaves of other brassica family plants. That means that you can use these same suggestions to make better use of the leaves from cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts, kalettes, broccoli rabe, broccolini, and all sorts of cabbage.
1. Slaw
This one is simple. Instead of using cabbage to make your cole slaw, just shred broccoli leaves and use them instead. Substitute one for one in place of cabbage.
Or, if you prefer, mix the two!
2. “Cabbage” Rolls
Again, make your favorite cabbage leaf dish the same as you would with cabbage, except use broccoli leaves instead. This works for golumpkis (cabbage rolls), lazy golumpkis, casserole, or soup versions – any of them!
3. Stir Fries
Cut thin ribbons of broccoli leaves and use them in your favorite stir fry. The sturdy leaves hold up well and keep a good, slightly firm, crisp texture – one that you’ll love in any stir fry.
And you get that delicious broccoli flavor.
4. Shred and Sauté
Shred broccoli leaves into fine shreds and sauté them with some salt, pepper, and garlic in olive oil. This makes a tasty, simple side dish all on its own.
For a little more flair, toss in some sesame seeds!
5. Chopped Into Salads
Chop the leaves or cut them into ribbons and add them fresh into green salads. Prepared this way, they are similar to using shredded cabbage in your salad but with a bit of broccoli flavor.
6. Soups
Do you love cream of broccoli soup? Hate having to use all your homegrown broccoli to make it?
Make it with broccoli leaves! You can use all leaves or cut in half and half with the broccoli florets.
Everything gets pureed in a creamed soup, anyway, so you’ll be hard-pressed to know the difference.
You can also use chopped broccoli leaves in place of florets in noodle soups and more.
7. Dried Vegetable Powder
Dried vegetable powders are easy to make. They are a great way to add nutrition to all sorts of dishes, and if you have picky veggie eaters in the house, they never need to know!
You can make “green” powders from any edible leafy vegetable (including lettuce and spinach).
All you need to do is dry or dehydrate the leaves (a dehydrator is ideal, but the oven works, too!).
When dry and cool, pulverize the powder in a blender, spice mill, coffee grinder, or food processor.
Add broccoli leaf powder to anything – put it in smoothies, salad dressings, on roasted vegetables, in soups...the possibilities for boosting your food’s nutrition really are endless this way.
You don’t have to limit yourself to just broccoli, either. You can mix and match different dried greens from your garden for a more varied flavor and nutritional profile and to use up more of your garden’s excess.
There’s no “right” or “wrong” recipe for dried vegetable powder. It is a powerhouse of nutrition, though!
8. Broccoli Pesto
We really limit ourselves when we think basil is the only right green ingredient for pesto. Using other leafy greens really steps up the flavor possibilities for pesto.
Of course, we do love basil, too, so it’s perfectly fine to cut the ingredients half and half together!
And if you don’t like basil or find it too strong on its own, using an alternative vegetable like broccoli or brassica leaves, or even pea pods, is a great way to enjoy homemade pesto.
9. Creamed Greens
Do you love dishes like creamed spinach? Then you’ll love creamed broccoli leaves, too.
Prepare creamed broccoli leaves just as you would any other creamed greens like kale, collards, spinach...
10. Add to Pasta Dishes
Add broccoli leaves to any pasta dish to give yourself a daily dose of veggies in a quick and easy way. You can add them steamed, chopped, in powder form...any way you like.
Broccoli leaves work especially well in creamy dishes like alfredo.
11. Substitute for Brussels Sprouts
Broccoli leaves make a great substitute for Brussels sprouts and can be prepared in the same way for many dishes. The texture is similarly firm, and the flavor is similar, too.
Broccoli leaves substitute especially well for chopped or shredded Brussels sprouts, such as in a Brussels sprout salad.
12. Substitute for Other Hardy Greens
Here’s another easy one. Simply substitute broccoli leaves for any other type of garden green. Especially the firmer, sturdier kinds.
Broccoli leaves make a fine substitution for kale, collards, spinach, chard, and broccoli rabe, among others.
Selecting and Picking Broccoli Leaves for Cooking
When it comes to choosing or harvesting broccoli leaves to cook with, you have a couple of options.
Leaves that wrap the whole broccoli head
First, you can collect and use the leaves that come on the heads of fresh broccoli. These are the leaves that sort of “wrap” the whole head. This is simply a way to use more of the head and waste less.
By the way – the stems of the broccoli head can be used, too. Use them just as you would use cut or chopped broccoli florets.
The leaves that come on the heads of broccoli are young and tender enough that there isn’t much guesswork here; not much of a selection process at all. Just use what’s on the head.
Picking leaves from the broccoli plant
The other option and this is a good one for gardeners who grow broccoli at home, is to pick leaves from the broccoli plant.
This is another way to waste less and get more from what you’re growing – make more of your broccoli crop!
You can start picking broccoli leaves long before you have broccoli heads or florets to harvest. You should let the plants get some size and wait until they are a foot tall or larger, with several sets of leaves.
- Don’t take more than 30% of the plant’s leaves at one time so the plant has plenty left to photosynthesize
- Younger, tender leaves will be less bitter, but any leaves on the broccoli plant are edible
- As long as you like the taste and texture, the leaves you pick are fine to eat
- Look for leaves with little insect damage (but if you remove the insects and are shredding the leaves, those can be used, too)
- Choose smaller leaves and newer growth that won’t be as tough
- Medium to large leaves may be preferable for some uses, such as a replacement for cabbage leaves, for cabbage rolls, et cetera.
- Texture with older leaves is less of an issue if you are sautéing the leaves or if you will puree them for a soup or sauce (like pesto).
Get More Goods from Your Garden by Using Uncommon Edible Plant Parts!
The more we know about the plants we grow (or buy fresh), the more we can get out of them.
Broccoli leaves are something that usually find themselves in the discard pile, or at best, in the compost.
What a shame!
The leaves of broccoli are flavorful, nutritious plant parts that, when used, can give us more harvest for our garden investments.
Wouldn’t it be great to get more from your garden without having to grow another single plant!?
When you think about the other broccoli relatives and brassicas we can use in this way, that’s a serious increase in produce and harvests without even trying.
By the way, -- broccoli leaves are far from being the only unusual plant part that can be eaten. Lots of plants are edible from stem to top. Check out this list of thirty more uncommon plant parts you didn’t know you could eat!
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