What is squash – useful properties of a vegetable and step-by-step recipes for cooking dishes with photos

The content of the article

• Squash vegetable
• Beneficial features
• How to make squash
• Squash Dishes
• Cooking recipes
• Stuffed
• Fried
• Pickled
• Squash Salad

An unusual vegetable – squash – is the fruit of a plant of the pumpkin family, a zucchini dish-shaped. It is not grown to large sizes, unlike pumpkins – small young fruits are used in cooking. Squash is healthy, rich in vitamins, natural antioxidants, tastes a bit like porcini mushrooms. Soups, various snacks, salads are prepared from them, they are fried, baked, stuffed, canned.

Squash vegetable

A herbaceous plant from the pumpkin family (an ordinary type of pumpkin) of a bush form with large stiff leaves, single yellow flowers and fruits of a bell or plate shape, white, green or yellow, is called squash. The vegetable is bred artificially, does not occur in the wild. They began to grow it in America (Mexico and Guatemala), from the 17th century cultivates in Europe. The name comes from the French word “pie”, but was chosen because of what the squash looks like – the shape of a vegetable resembles a pie or an unusual bun (see photo).

Beneficial features

The fruits of squash have a lot of useful properties due to the high content of vitamins and minerals. The peel of the vegetable contains a lot of carotene, lutein (natural antioxidants), which free the body from free radicals and toxins, and resist the growth of cancer cells. The product is useful for blood diseases, endocrine, nervous disorders, removes excess water from the body, normalizes heart rate, and lowers blood pressure. Squash composition:

In addition to useful properties, this zucchini has an unusual shape and contraindications:

• Doctors recommend limiting the use of vegetables for diabetes, impaired renal function or pancreas.
• Oxalates contained in squash increase the load on the kidneys and gall bladder, increasing the risk of urolithiasis.
• Eating the fruits of pumpkin plants should be limited to hypotension, digestive disorders, children under 10 years old.

How to make squash

You do not need to have a high level of culinary skill to cook squash quickly and tasty. The product goes well with other vegetables, accelerates the absorption of protein foods (meat products, mushrooms, cheeses). It is important to remember that it is not recommended to use it in its raw form, but prolonged heat treatment reduces the palatability and usefulness of the “solar vegetable marrow”. For all recipes, the fruits are more suitable:

1. small size (no more than 7 cm in diameter);
2. without spots or other defects on the peel;
3. dense;
4. with a dried stalk.

Squash Dishes

You can cook from squash as mono-dishes (fried or stewed vegetables with spices and garlic), as well as salads, stews, soups. Tasty pancakes with onions, vegetable snacks (they can be pickled for the winter), fruits stuffed with a mixture of rice and other vegetables, mushrooms, chicken and cheese fillet are delicious. Squash is used to make pie filling, custard. In America and European countries (for example, in Greece) the flowers of the plant are pickled, fried in batter.

Cooking recipes

Recipes from squash differ in a combination of simplicity and originality, even a novice hostess can cope with the preparation of any dishes. Just fry the sliced ​​zucchini, sprinkle the finished dish with garlic and herbs, and in 15 minutes you have a ready savory snack. More complicated recipes, such as stuffed zucchini, require some skill, but after 2-3 preparations it becomes easy to cope with them..

Stuffed

• Time: 90 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 6 Persons.
• Calorie dishes: 290 kcal.
• Purpose: Garnish.
• Cuisine: Greek.
• Difficulty: medium.

Choose this recipe if you think how to cook an unusual and not too complicated dish of squash. For the filling, choose a protein product (minced meat or chicken), add vegetable ingredients, mushrooms and sauce to it. In the vegetarian version of the recipe, meat is replaced with rice. Fruits for stuffing is better to use very small, the same size, with intact peel.

Ingredients:

• squash – 6 pcs.;
• minced meat – 400 g;
• onions – 1 large head;
• garlic – 2-3 cloves;
• champignons – 150 g;
• hard cheese – 60 g;
• sour cream – 150 ml;
• butter – 30 g;
• black pepper, salt, spices – to taste.

Cooking method:

1. Prepare the filling: chop the onion (chop into small cubes) and garlic (grate), slightly fry the mushrooms (5-7 minutes). Mix the ingredients with minced meat, pour sour cream, add spices and salt.
2. Wash the fruits of zucchini, carefully cut the top, clean the seeds and pulp, leaving the walls 1-1.5 cm thick.
3. Fill the vegetables with the filling, put a piece of butter on it, close the “caps” from the tops.
4. Put in a cauldron or pot with a thick bottom. Pour in water, simmer under the lid for 30-40 minutes.

Fried

• Time: 40 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 5 Persons.
• Calorie dishes: 63 kcal.
• Purpose: for a snack.
• Cuisine: European.
• Difficulty: Easy.

There are several options for making delicious fried squash. In a simple recipe, chopped fruits are fried in oil on both sides. To get a more high-calorie and hearty meal, use flour batter. Cooking is just as easy, with almost pancakes with a crispy thin crust. If desired, add cheese, garlic and other spices to the batter to give the dish an aroma and make the zucchini taste richer.

Ingredients:

• squash – 3 pcs.;
• egg – 2 pcs.;
• flour – 4 tbsp;
• vegetable oil – 50 ml;
• garlic – 3 cloves;
• parsley and dill greens – 50 g;
• salt, spices to taste.

Cooking method:

1. Wash the vegetables, if necessary, peel and seed, cut into rings 1-1.5 cm thick.
2. Prepare everything for batter: mix flour with spices, in a separate bowl, beat the eggs with salt.
3. Sauté the sliced ​​fruits in a frying pan over high heat, first chopping the slices in flour twice before and dipping them in the egg. Frying time – 3-4 minutes on each side.
4. Sprinkle the finished zucchini before serving with herbs, chopped garlic, so that they look elegant, as in the photo.

Pickled

• Time: 60 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 8 Persons.
• Calorie dishes: 176 kcal.
• Purpose: appetizer.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty: Easy.

Canned squash is juicier if you pickle the vegetables without chopping them whole. The main secret, how to cook a delicious winter snack from these zucchini, is a spicy unusual marinade, which gives a rich aroma. It is better to pasteurize cans and lids before rolling up. You can do this in any convenient way – in boiling water, in the oven or over the spout of a boiling kettle.

Ingredients:

• squash small – 1 kg;
• cherry tomatoes – 150 g;
• water – 1 l:
• salt – 1 tbsp;
• sugar – 1 tbsp;
• dried star anise – 2 flowers;
• caraway seeds – 0.5 tsp;
• garlic – 4 cloves;
• bay leaf – 3 pcs.;
• vinegar (70%) – 2 tbsp..

Cooking method:

1. Sterilize the jar and lid. Wash the vegetables thoroughly, fold the jars inside with the garlic tightly. but without squeezing the fruit, to get aesthetically pleasing, as in the photo.
2. Boil water, pour into a jar, soak for 15-20 minutes, drain. Repeat.
3. The third time before boiling, add everything to the brine (except acetic acid) to the water. Pour boiling marinade into the jar, add vinegar, roll the lid.

Squash Salad

• Time: 40 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 4 Persons.
• Calorie content: 146 kcal.
• Purpose: for a snack.
• Cuisine: European.
• Difficulty: medium.

Warm salad of squash and vegetables is easy to prepare, but not fast, because when stewing vegetables are added alternately after a short time interval. It is better to chop the ingredients on a grater for Korean carrots, or manually cut into thin long strips. This salad goes well with side dishes of potatoes and various casseroles. Greens are added last, a few minutes before the end of cooking.

Ingredients:

• squash – 3-4 pcs.;
• carrots – 2 pcs.;
• onions – 1 pc;
• bell pepper – 2 pcs.;
• garlic – 3 cloves;
• spices, herbs, cooking oil – to taste.

Cooking method:

1. Wash and peel the zucchini, chop on a grater or cut into strips. Simmer on low heat for 5-7 minutes.
2. Peel, chop carrots, add to squash, fry for another 5-7 minutes.
3. Cut onions, peppers, add to carrots, fry everything together for 7-10 minutes.
4. Grind garlic, herbs, add with spices to vegetables 2 minutes before cooked.

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