(1) Green smoothie with kale are very common. We may also experiment with collard greens, bok choy and cabbage in green smoothies.

(2) Raw salad with leafy greens like arugula, kale, collard greens, turnip greens, kohlrabi greens, mizuna, mustard greens, komatsuna. Some of these leafy greens have a signature recipe, for example, 'massaged kale salad' or 'arugula-apple-pecan salad'. We can also make salads with garden cress, watercress, land cress.

(3) Raw salad with non-leafy cruciferous veggies: cabbage (especially purple cabbage) is part of salad recipes like coleslaw. Cauliflower may be grated into "cauliflower rice". Chinese cabbage, broccoli romanesco & Brussel sprouts? Yes, we have salad recipes with daikon, radish, watercress and raw Brussels sprouts too.

(4) Chutneys, dips n dresings: We can make salt-free mustard (with mustard seeds, vinegar and spices mixed together). Mustard may be combined with wasabi or horseradish. See Mustard Recipes.

(5) Raw root veggies: Can we eat kohlrabi (root), rutabaga & turnips (root) raw? Are there recipes with shredded or grated kohlrabi root, rutabaga or turnip roots? Yes! Kohlrabi slaw, shredded turnip salad, … Bok choy, Broccoli, Broccoli rabe, Chinese broccoli, Tatsoi: can we eat them raw? Yes, as part of salads.

(6) Cooked leafy greens: Lots of ideas with kale, collard greens, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi greens, cabbage, …

(7) Cooked root veggies: Lots of ideas with rutabaga, kohlrabi, turnips, …

(8) Seeds: What about garden cress seeds? They are like chia seeds in the sense that they swell up when soaked in water; we may then consume them. But if we eat them this way, do we get maximum nutrition (because we may not chew these swelled up seeds very well to break open their cell walls). Also, garden cress seeds (haleem seeds) are kinda bitter. Maybe they can be crushed into a powder and added to 'laddoo' recipes (in such a recipe, the idea is to consume odd tasting nutrient rich foods with dates — dates become the delivery vehicle for tolerating their taste).

(9) Broccoli sprouts! The highest concentration of sulforaphane is derived from broccoli sprouts. They don't taste great but we can get used to them. They go well with salads and sandwiches. Plus, a specialized technique has been developed to further boost sulforaphane content by 3.5x! For details, see Broccoli Sprouts.

Sulforaphane is a magical compound predominantly derived in our diet from cruciferous veggies. Sulforaphane promotes good health through multiple mechanisms: see Why Cruciferous? Why Broccoli? But we have to be careful! We need to understand how to prepare cruciferous veggies for consumption so that sulforaphane is actually produced. The details are in this video: this video by Dr Greger.

Cruciferous veggies don't come with sulforaphane: A precursor called glucoraphanin (let's call it G) has to mix with an enzyme called myrosinase (let's call it M) to produce sulforaphane (let's call it S). Aren't G and M mixed together in raw cruciferous veggies already? No. Cruciferous veggies have G and M, but not S. We have to mix G and M together by chewing or blending using a high speed blender, for example.

Heating destroys M! Luckily, heating does not destroy G or S. What does that mean? Well, if we were to chew raw cruciferous, G and M get a chance to mix together in our mouth to produce the magical compound S. Yay! But if we were to cook cruciferous first, then blend it or chew it, no S is produced because M was destroyed during cooking.

What should we do? Here are some ideas:

(1) Eat Raw! Wait a minute — who eats raw cruciferous? Many people do:

• Make a green smoothie! Add kale and collards, both of which are cruciferous! :-)
• Eat raw radish ('mooli') or wasabi or horseradish (fermented cabbage) with our meals!
• Eat some raw broccoli or raw radish or raw grated cauliflower or finely chopped purple cabbage in our salad.
• Eat some broccoli sprouts in salad or sandwich. Broccoli sprouts are a potent source of sulforaphane! So we need to eat only a little bit for lots of sulforaphane. For details, see Broccoli Sprouts.

(2) Dr Greger's "Hack & Hold Technique" (described in this video by Dr Greger): This technique is handy if we wish to cook our cruciferous at high temperatures. Steps:

1. Finely chop a cruciferous, e.g., minced broccoli or finely grated broccoli for broccoli soup.
2. Keep chopped or minced cruciferous veggie aside for 40 mins; this step leads to sulforaphane production.
3. Heat the chopped | minced | grated cruciferous; sulforaphane will not be lost.

(3) Combine raw & cooked (explained in this video by Dr Greger): We may cook cruciferous veggies in any way we feel like (no need to folow the "Hack and Hold Technique" outlined above) but at serving time, we add a few pieces of raw cruciferous to the mix. The raw cruciferous can be the same as the cooked cruciferous or a totally different cruciferous. The M in raw cruciferous will mix with G in cooked cruciferous to produce the magical compound S.

Ideas for combining raw and cooked cruciferous (the cooked and the raw veggies need not be identical; they may be different):

• To cooked broccoli soup, add some raw grated broccoli at serving time.
• To cooked cruciferous, add some mustard powder. Mustard powder is made from mustard seeds; mustard is a cruciferous. How much mustard powder? Dr Greger says 1/4 tsp is likely to suffice. Please see Dr Greger's video for details.
• Eat some radish ('mooli') or horseradish or wasabi in the same meal along with cooked cruciferous.

(4) Frozen cruciferous veggies: Frozen broccoli (and frozen cruciferous greens in general) are blanched (heat treated) before freezing. So if we use frozen broccoli, we should employ one of the above ideas. For example, we may eat some raw cruciferous along with our meal, or use some mustard powder.

This 5-min video demonstrates all of the above ideas:

For technical details of 'Special Instructions' outlined above, we may browse through Dr Greger's articles and videos.

Articles by Dr Greger:

• (2016) How to Cook Broccoli

Videos by Dr Greger: