Some of my favourite foods for hormone balance are cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, bok choy, brussels sprouts, etc). These guys contains the isothiocyanate, sulforaphane, that has amazing health benefits, especially for healthy hormones (oestrogen) and liver detoxification.
Broccoli sprouts are the richest source of sulforaphane, but we can still get a hefty dose from regular old broccoli if we prepare it correctly. The tricky part is that sulforaphane isn’t readily available from broccoli; it needs the precursor (glucoraphanin) to be ‘activated’ by the enzyme myrosinase (which is still contained in broccoli) to turn it INTO sulforaphane. In addition to this, you actually need to damage the broccoli to ‘activate’ the myrosinase enzyme into gear to make sulforaphane. Sounds complicated I know, but it's actually really easy to help this process along in your own kitchen.
Now, you would think that throwing broccoli into the pan and cooking it would damage it enough to boost these benefits... but no, myrosinase is destroyed by heat. Just to make things more complicated. And I also wouldn’t recommend eating broccoli raw, especially if you have gut or thyroid issues.
So what do you do?!
Here are 2 options:
Option 1: The more you damage broccoli in its raw state, the more myrosinase you’re going to get. So grating, finely chopping or popping it in the food processor (probably best to pulse it so it doesn’t get too hot - just incase) is going to damage it as much as possible. Now that the broccoli is cut into super tiny pieces, it’s not going to take as much heat or time to cook it. Yay! But there’s one more step. Leave the chopped broccoli to sit for up to 90 minutes, as this helps to produce the most myrosinase as possible. Then you can heat a frying pan over medium heat with some olive oil & pop the chopped broccoli in to cook for a few minutes. Viola! Broccoli ‘rice’. You'll see how tasty this can be with the recipe below.
Option 2: Prepare and cook broccoli like you normally would, but add brown mustard powder to cooked broccoli. Why? Because brown mustard powder contains myrosinase! Isn’t it amazing how foods can work together to make healthy foods even more healthy? Add around 1 teaspoon of the powder to 200g of cooked broccoli to get approx. 4 times greater bioavailability of sulforaphane. Incredible.
Which brings me to my super tasty Low Carb Broccoli Fried Rice Recipe!
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 head of broccoli (florets removed and reduced to a crumbly consistency in a food processor. Leave to sit for 90 minutes).
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 red chilli, finely chopped (seeds removed if you like it mild)
1/2 red capsicum, finely chopped
1 bunch of asparagus, chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 eggs, whisked
1 cup cooked chicken breast, chopped
2 tbsp tamari
1 tsp sesame oil
Sesame seeds & fresh coriander (to garnish)
Method:
Heat the olive oil in a fry pan over medium-high heat.
Add the onion, garlic and chilli and cook for a few minutes until translucent.
Add the capsicum, asparagus and carrot and cook for 5 minutes or until just cooked through.
Push the vegetables to the edge of the pan, clearing the centre and pour in the whisked egg, stirring quickly until the egg is scrambled and cooked through.
Mix the egg and vegetables together once cooked.
Add the cooked chicken breast and stir to combine.
Add the broccoli 'rice' and stir to combine.
Add the tamari and sesame oil and mix through. Cook for a couple of minutes until the chicken is heated through.
Remove from heat and serve into bowls.
Top with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and coriander and enjoy!
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29806738
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.7b05913
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