Broccoli Nutrition Facts, Raw and Cooked

The broccoli head is a cluster of unopened flower buds on thick, branching stems. The florets are the most familiar part, but the stalk is just as edible once its tough outer layer is peeled, and the leaves can be cooked like collards. Broccoli is the same species as cabbage, cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts, each bred for a different part of the plant.

USDA lists measures for chopped broccoli, a single spear, a stalk and a whole bunch, all from one raw record. Its measures do not separate florets from stems, so the numbers here describe broccoli as it is usually trimmed and chopped.

• Broccoli: the large-headed type sold as crowns or bunches, and the one this page covers.
• Chinese broccoli (gai lan): a leafy relative grown for its thick stems and leaves, with only small flower buds.
• Broccolini: a cross between broccoli and gai lan, with long thin stems and small florets.
• Broccoli rabe (rapini): despite the name, closer to turnips than to broccoli, with a bitter edge.

These have their own USDA records where they have one, so use the broccoli numbers here only for broccoli itself.

Cooking softens broccoli and lets it pack more tightly, so a cup of cooked broccoli holds more broccoli by weight than a cup of raw. Per 100 g, though, raw and boiled broccoli are very close in calories, protein and carbohydrate.

Vitamin C is the exception. It dissolves in water and breaks down with heat, so boiling lets some of it leach into the cooking water: USDA's record for boiled, drained broccoli, shown on the cooked broccoli page, lists less vitamin C per 100 g than raw. Steaming or microwaving with a splash of water, and stopping while the broccoli is still bright green, generally keeps more of it. Roasting adds whatever oil you toss the florets in.

• Broccoli cheddar soup. Broccoli simmered with onion in stock and milk, then thickened and finished with cheddar. Cheddar Cheese · Whole Milk · Butter · Onion
• Chicken and broccoli stir-fry. Florets cooked quickly with sliced chicken, garlic and soy sauce, served over rice. Chicken Breast · Garlic · Soy Sauce · Brown Rice
• Broccoli salad. Raw chopped broccoli in a creamy dressing with bacon, cheddar and red onion. Bacon · Cheddar Cheese · Mayonnaise · Onion
• Pasta with broccoli. Broccoli cooked with the pasta, then tossed with garlic and olive oil. Pasta · Garlic · Olive Oil
• Broccoli rice casserole. Broccoli baked with rice and a cheese sauce. White Rice · Cheddar Cheese

Keep broccoli unwashed in the refrigerator, loosely wrapped or in an open bag so moisture does not collect on the florets. Yellowing buds mean it is past its best. To freeze it, blanch the florets briefly in boiling water and cool them in ice water first; that is also how commercial frozen broccoli is prepared.

Weigh broccoli after trimming, in the state it goes into your recipe. If you add it raw and it cooks inside the product, as in a soup or casserole, enter the raw weight and set the final cooked batch weight so water loss is accounted for; the recipe nutrition calculator and the label generator both handle this. If you add pre-cooked broccoli, use the cooked record instead. Vegetables have their own FDA reference amounts, raw or cooked, listed in the RACC lookup.