If you're a spicy food fan, take heart as combining certain piquant foods with broccoli may give the vegetable a much more powerful cancer-fighting kick.
In its raw form, broccoli has a substance called myrosinase inside it, which converts to sulforaphane when eaten. But if it's cooked for more than a four minute steam, it rapidly loses this compound, and many of the health benefits. The solution? Add something that it can take myrosinase from — like some rather delightful spicy foods. You can pair the broccoli with broccoli sprouts, mustard, horseradish, or wasabi, and the spicier the better. The two combined will create more sulforaphane than either could on their own.
If you're not a fan of culinary spice, you can also use radishes, cabbage, arugula, watercress, and Brussels sprouts.
An excuse to pile on more mustard or wasabi? I can live with that. Now if only it worked with sriracha too...