Cauliflower, broccoli and the cabbage family

Brassicas raise two different questions at once, and it helps to keep them apart. The first is mechanical: can this pass a narrowed or healing bowel without catching. The second is wind, which is a comfort and stoma question rather than a blockage one. A food can pass the first test and fail the second.

The disagreement

The leaflet this book follows allows cauliflower and broccoli florets, softly cooked. St George's classes both as medium, permitted well cooked. Leeds lists tough stalks, cauliflower and broccoli on its avoid list even at the least restrictive stage of its obstruction diet.

Cabbage, kale, sprouts and spring greens are a different case and are restricted much more consistently, both for their leaf structure and for wind. They are not used anywhere in this book.

What this book does

Cauliflower and broccoli appear as florets only, no stalk, cooked until a knife meets no resistance. The stalk and the thick core go in the compost before cooking starts, because they are built from long structural fibres that do not soften. See florets only, no stalk.

Every recipe using them carries a line saying that some hospitals leave cauliflower off the list altogether and to leave it out if you have been told to. They also carry a note about wind, because brassicas are flagged as gas-forming in stoma advice regardless of how well they are cooked.

This is one of the places where following one leaflet closely produces a different book from following another. It is worth reading the recipe notes rather than assuming.

What you should do

Ask your team directly, because the trusts genuinely split on this one and there is no consensus to fall back on. If you have a stoma, ask separately about wind, since that is a different question with a different answer. If the answer is no, cauliflower cheese is not the recipe for you, and the potato and cheese dishes in the book do a similar job.