Food of the Day: Cauliflower

Cauliflower is part of the cabbage family, so admittedly, it does have the potential to make one somewhat gassy.  I don't know about my compatriots, but my Crohn's Baby is adamantly convinced that all food is from the cabbage family.

It is, however, also an excellent source of ascorbic acid, which aides the absorption of iron (Hallberg & Rossander 1984); vitamin C, an antioxidant and immune booster; folic acid, preventing anemia and promoting healthy cell growth; and choline, with anti-inflammatory activity.  The high indole-3-carbinol and sulforaphane content of cauliflower are also cell division regulators, and implicated in the prevention of certain cancers (Ambrosone et al 2004).  Cell division, also being part of epithelial turnover in the intestines, is important to moderate in autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's/Coeliac, etc.  Perhaps most importantly, indole-3-carbinol has been shown to inhibit NF-kB (a cohort of TNF-alpha) as well as its gene expression, an anti-inflammatory property (Yoon & Baek 2005).

In honor of this benign, SCD-approved vegetable, I conducted a food experiment today.  After trekking (more appropriately, shuffling on H.B.'s arm) to the grocery store to buy a food processor -- which I cannot affectionately dub Ninja on account of that being its actual name -- I made cauliflower soup.

Yesterday's post being such a profound downer, I felt it opportune to renew my own vigor by diving into the potential benefit of pureed vegetables.  The beatific solution to maximizing veggie goodness while minimizing the incidence of internecine Throughput: make it mush.  Yes?  We'll have results in two days.

Steamed cauliflower pureed with sun dried tomatoes (less acidic than oranges, pears or olives, by the way, at pH ~4.6) and green onion, then boiled in low-sodium chicken broth with some basil and garlic (this is me asking for trouble).

 

'twas really, really good.