Before you cook or eat fresh broccoli, be sure to clean it to remove dirt, pesticides, and even bugs. You can wash your broccoli quickly and easily with water or a vinegar solution, and you can remove cabbage worms from the florets with a salt water solution.
How do you properly wash broccoli?
Broccoli and Cauliflower
Get your cruciferous veggies squeaky clean by filling a sink with cold water and then soaking them for a few minutes. Then, gently lift them out of the water, place in a colander and rinse again under a stream of more cold water.
What do you soak broccoli in to clean it?
Broccoli and cauliflower have lots of crevices where germs can hide. Soak these vegetables in a bowl of cold water for two minutes before rinsing them under cold running water.
Should you soak broccoli in salt water?
The Soaking Process
Remove the leaves and woody parts of the stalk and cut the broccoli into bite-sized pieces before soaking it. Immerse the cut pieces into a salt water solution for 30 minutes. Use 4 teaspoons of salt for each 1 gallon of water. Any bugs in the broccoli will float to the top.
What happens if you don’t wash broccoli?
Don’t wash too soon or you may invite bugs and bacteria
Moist spots can quickly soften fruit or vegetable skin. That attracts bacteria and bugs, both of which can be problematic for food safety. Rot can ultimately ruin the food too soon.
Is it OK to eat unwashed vegetables?
There are two main risks of eating unwashed fruits and vegetables: bacterial contamination and pesticides. In recent years, many outbreaks of foodborne illness have come from contaminated cantaloupe, spinach, tomatoes, and lettuce. … Although pesticides can help farmers grow more food, they also have many health risks.
Do I need to wash broccoli before roasting?
Wash broccoli and dry very thoroughly. (Don’t skip drying — it’s important. You can even use a salad spinner if you have one, or just shake, shake, shake all the water out and then pat dry with a towel.) Cut into medium-sized spears and coat well with olive oil.