"My neighbour Sharon was having no luck growing broccoli. So I gave up growing broccoli before I even started. If she couldn't, I wouldn't. Then she gave me six little plants, something called, mysteriously, aztec broccoli. It's not actually broccoli, she told me. The plot thickened. Not being the kind of horticulturist who likes to get bogged down in details, I bunged them in the ground and hoped for the best. Before I knew it, they were knee, waist and then head high."
"I got shakes of the head from a friend with a marvellous allotment in York; a seed supplier from Suffolk I sat next to on a train to Swansea and a woman who won nearly every prize at a horticultural society event to which I'd been invited to give out trophies. I was starting to wonder if this was some kind of hoax."
Six aztec broccoli plants rapidly grew from small seedlings to head-high bushes, creating a dense, fast-regenerating crop. The plant, huauzontle (Chenopodium nuttalliae), is a Mexican native in the goosefoot family related to quinoa and amaranth and is regarded by some as a superfood. All parts are edible, including broccoli-like flower shoots, while leaves and stalks can be cooked like spinach but retain more texture. A large bush cooks down to a small yield yet regrows quickly. Traditional stuffed-and-fried tortitas de huauzontle are time-consuming, so the shoots can be simply cooked like broccoli.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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