Broccoli, The Vegetable You Use Less Of
Broccoli is the smallest ingredient by volume in our topper VENISON + APPLE, and the one we spent the longest deciding on.
In sensible amounts, dogs can eat broccoli: cut small, cooked and unseasoned. Just do not use a lot of it. Broccoli is one of those ingredients that works best in a small amount, and the reason why becomes clear once you know a little about it.
What is actually in broccoli
Japan's food composition tables put raw broccoli at about 37 kcal per 100g, with 5.4g of protein, 5.1g of dietary fibre and 6.6g of carbohydrate. It carries 460mg of potassium, 220μg of folate, 210μg of vitamin K and 140mg of vitamin C, in a vegetable that is 86% water.
That vitamin C figure is one of the reasons people buy broccoli, but does it matter for dogs? Unlike us, dogs make their own vitamin C in the liver, so there is no dietary requirement for it in a healthy dog.
What interested us more was the fibre, the vitamin K and the folate. And it is not only about nutrition. Broccoli has a flavour that apple, sweet potato and carrot do not, and that flavour has a slightly complicated side, which is what we struggled with.
The flavour, and its other side
Broccoli's flavour, that green, slightly peppery, faintly sulphurous note, comes partly from what happens when it is cut or chewed. The cells break, and an enzyme called myrosinase comes into contact with glucosinolates that were stored separately in the tissue. The reaction produces isothiocyanates, among other compounds.
But the same reaction that makes broccoli so appealing can unsettle the stomach of some dogs. It is the same chemistry doing both jobs: flavour for a person, and for some dogs, a burden. So we decided that in a dog's food, broccoli belongs quietly in the background, as a supporting ingredient in a small amount.
Heat blunts that reaction and softens the broccoli. Plant fibre such as cellulose is hard for dogs to digest, which is why this matters. Size matters too: stalk cut into rounds can get stuck in the throat, particularly in small dogs. Cut small and cooked soft — that is where we landed.
In our topper VENISON + APPLE, the broccoli is cut small and cooked sealed in the pouch with the venison, apple, sweet potato and carrot. The juices from the broccoli and the flavour of the other ingredients all come together in the same pouch.
The quiet ingredient
Cooked into a topper, broccoli does not stay a floret. You will not pick it out of the bowl the way you can pick out a piece of carrot. What it leaves is a low, slightly bitter green note under the venison and the sweetness of the apple and sweet potato; it adds dimension to the recipe.
Using an ingredient well does not always mean using a lot of it. That is the broccoli in VENISON + APPLE: the smallest part of the recipe, and the one we spent the most time thinking about.
A dog's food deserves the same care we give our own. Paying attention to the flavour and story behind every ingredient is where everything Karuizawa Harvest makes begins.
Notes & sources
- Broccoli composition, raw and boiled: 日本食品標準成分表2020年版（八訂）増補2023年, items 06263 ブロッコリー 花序 生 and 06264 花序 ゆで — MEXT Food Composition Database: raw (06263), boiled (06264)
- Broccoli for dogs in small amounts, isothiocyanate irritation, and stalk obstruction risk — American Kennel Club, Can Dogs Eat Broccoli?
- Glucosinolates, myrosinase and isothiocyanate formation on tissue damage — Frontiers in Nutrition, 2021: The Challenges of Designing and Implementing Clinical Trials With Broccoli Sprouts…
- Dogs synthesise vitamin C endogenously; no dietary requirement is set — Merck Veterinary Manual, Nutritional Requirements of Small Animals
- Cellulose and dietary fibre digestibility in dogs — Burrows CF, Kronfeld DS, Banta CA, Merritt AM. The Journal of Nutrition, 1982. Effects of Fiber on Digestibility and Transit Time in Dogs.
