Avocado - has oily pulp with a taste of greens and nuts. A ripe avocado should be soft, but not mashed.

Very important, avocados darken very quickly after you cut them. You can, of course, add lemon juice and stop the browning, but it’s better to serve the avocado straight to the table.

Avocado storage. If you need the fruit to ripen faster, leave it at room temperature. If stored in the refrigerator in a plastic bag, the fruit practically does not ripen.

Culinary uses of avocados are in salads, sandwiches, appetizers, smoothies and sauces. It's delicious mixed with Philadelphia cheese and served on toast, as in the photo. On the Internet you will find recipes for baked avocado with egg, I tried it and I don’t like the taste of baked avocado at all. The simplest way to serve is to cut into slices, sprinkle with lemon juice, lightly salt and pepper.

Avocado on English language- avocado.

Actinidia or kiwi berries

Actinidia (kiwi berries, kiwi grapes, northern kiwi, cocktail kiwi...) are very tasty berries with the taste of sweet gooseberries, only the skin is much thinner than that of gooseberries. In cross-section, this berry is similar to kiwi, but the taste is much sweeter than kiwi. By the way, actinidia is grown in some regions of Russia as a garden and ornamental plant. Look below for a photo of a kiwi with actinidia.

Culinary uses of kiwi berries - they are very tasty to eat fresh, they can be used in desserts like other berries, you can make jam or jam.

Kiwi berries in English - kiwi berries.

A pineapple

Photo From Pixabay.com

Pineapple is a tropical plant with a very pleasant sweet and sour taste. It has very wide culinary uses. Very unusual and tasty with powdered sugar and lime as a dessert, great combination with baked pork, grilling, chicken cooked in pineapple is very tasty, cocktails and many, many other culinary uses. From concentrated pineapple it is obtained delicious jelly, but do not use fresh pineapple, the acid in the pineapple will liquefy the gelatin and the jelly will not set.

Check out this simple pineapple plate decoration ⇒

Pineapple in English - pineapple

Artichoke

The artichoke is not a vegetable, it is the unopened flower of a plant from the Asteraceae family. The artichoke pulp tastes somewhat like zucchini with a delicate nutty flavor. There are several factors to consider when preparing. The “vegetable” quickly darkens, if you cut off the tops of the leaves (in most cases they are prickly) before cooking, you need to sprinkle with lemon juice. Inside the artichoke, the fluffy center is called chock in English and must be removed, it is not edible. It's easier to do this when the artichoke is already cooked. I usually steam the artichoke. The stem is mostly edible if the skin is removed and the tender part is left. The leaves themselves are not edible; the pulp inside the leaves is eaten. The pre-root rosette is the most delicious and valuable thing in an artichoke. Fresh artichoke is an expensive pleasure; in our country it costs from $2.5 and above. And to be honest, there is not much edible part in this product. In the USA, where I live, stores sell canned artichoke rosettes.

Culinary uses of artichoke. It's easiest to serve cooked artichoke as an appetizer with mayonnaise or melted butter with a squeeze of lemon or other sauces. Served whole with the fluffy center removed. If you are served a whole artichoke, tear off the leaves, dip them in the sauce and eat the pulp, passing the leaf between your teeth. In our classic Russian cuisine, the artichoke is not new; you can often find artichokes in our cookbooks stuffed with mushrooms. The artichoke is stuffed with various fillings, crackers, cheese, seafood, various spices, and meat products. Pre-root rosettes are used in salads, served as a side dish, and made into purees. Canned artichokes are used in salads and as side dishes.

Storing artichokes in the refrigerator.

Artichoke in English is artichoke.

Colorful vegetables

This may seem strange, but vegetables that are familiar to us can have a very strange and, at first glance, very unusual color. Do not rush to draw conclusions, these are not the experiments of modern scientists, these are just the whims of Mother Nature. She probably also wants to play pranks sometimes...

White strawberry

“White strawberry with pineapple flavor” sounds quite exotic. Having heard about such a berry, many people will probably want to try it.
Variety garden strawberries is white strawberry or Pineberry. Its creator is Hans de Jong and this variety was first bred in the Netherlands. It is a hybrid of Chilean strawberries. The flesh can range from white to orange in color and has a strong pineapple aroma and flavor. In Germany, these berries are called pineapple strawberries.

Ripe berries are completely white. They have beautiful seeds. Compared to regular strawberries, pineberry has a smaller berry size, which is 19-23 mm.

Yellow watermelon

In appearance it is an ordinary striped watermelon, only inside it is bright yellow. But in addition to the unusual color, this watermelon contains very few seeds compared to the usual one. This watermelon was born as a result of crossing a wild watermelon, which is yellow in color (although it is impossible to eat), with a regular one. And now round yellow watermelons are grown in the summer in Spain, and oval ones in the winter in Thailand.

By the way, yellow watermelon is especially respected there, because according to Thai beliefs, the yellow color attracts money. This watermelon is tender and juicy, although not as sweet as the red one.

There are yellow watermelons in Russia too, and they come from Astrakhan. For ten years, the head of the melon crops selection department of the All-Russian Research Institute of Irrigated Vegetable and Melon Growing, Sergei Sokolov, worked on developing a new variety, until finally he was able to obtain a variety that he named “Lunny”. By the way, the Russian variety - unlike foreign ones - is very sweet and has an exotic flavor, about which opinions differ: whether it is lemon, or mango, or pumpkin.

Red cucumbers

This vegetable appearance It is very reminiscent of a cucumber, although its color is bright red. But it just tastes “no good.”
In fact, this fruit belongs to the gourd family and is called “red cucumber” or “tladiantha dubious”.
This miracle was brought to Europe from Southeast Asia, and is considered more of an ornamental plant than an edible one. However, if you plant this beauty at your dacha, then in a couple of years your entire garden will be a continuous thicket of red cucumbers.

Orange-green-purple cabbage.

It's no surprise that this interesting view cauliflower is called Rainbow Cauliflowers cauliflower). This wonderful product, although it was developed in Switzerland not so long ago, is, however, not a product of genetic engineering. The thing is that breeding scientists have been working on breeding this type of cauliflower for several decades.

The taste of this unique product is no different from ordinary cauliflower. The most interesting property What makes this cauliflower so special is that it does not lose its brightness during heat treatment. Thanks to this, dishes made from such cabbage look very original.

Rainbow cabbage has another irreplaceable quality: each color shows its own beneficial features in relation to individual organs. For example, the orange part contains a lot of beta-carotene, which helps improve health in those who suffer from cardiovascular diseases.

Blue and purple potatoes.

These two real miracles of nature belong to the Franzosische Truffel-kartoffel and Linzer Blaue varieties, only they have a dark blue flesh color.

These potatoes cook very quickly, and dishes made from them taste like nuts with butter. Think blue hash browns or purple fries. Exotic!

There are two other varieties of blue potatoes, Linzer Roze and Kipfler, but they, on the contrary, cook very slowly and do not boil well. Their peel and pulp lose their color during heat treatment.

These varieties are most often consumed raw in salads, combining them with Jerusalem artichoke. These salads are usually served with wine.

In our country, blue potatoes are associated with a variety that is popularly called “sineglazka”, but its real name is “Hannibal”, which it received in honor of grandfather Pushkin, who selected potatoes.

Purple carrots.

The wild carrots were mostly purple. Sometimes white, less often – a little yellowish. Orange carrots, the first cultivated varieties, were bred by Danish gardeners only in the middle of the 16th century, and immediately spread throughout Europe - in this form it was much tastier, more productive and, to be honest, more beautiful. However, as historians say, people used wild carrots back in the Roman Empire - however, as a cure for sexual weakness in men and gynecological problems in women. The first were offered to chew the root, the second were given a decoction of carrot seeds.

Modern doctors claim that carrot seeds actually improve the condition of the epithelium urinary tract, so the Romans were not mistaken. On the first point, one experienced urologist, hesitating, said this: “Will carrots help with impotence? Well, let’s just say it won’t hurt.”

Carrots can be harmful in two cases - if you are allergic to them and if you have eaten too much of them (gnawed or drank more than 1 kg of juice per day). From an “overdose” of carrots, even completely healthy people can experience so-called “carotene jaundice.” In principle, it is not dangerous, and can be treated by excluding carrots from the diet, but is it really pleasant to walk around with yellow cheeks and palms? But there are many benefits from carrots. In addition to beta-carotene, there are quite a lot of other vitamins. Raw carrots improve intestinal motility, while heat-treated carrots help restore the pancreas after acute pancreatitis.

Carrots can be used not only as food, but also as a cosmetic preparation: it is part of nourishing and whitening masks. Important - in order to get the maximum benefit from this root vegetable, you must definitely eat carrots with something fat-containing: cream, sour cream, vegetable oil, avocado, nuts...

Humane housewives, trying to feed their household with carrots, have the habit of grating them. Nevertheless, it is better to chew raw carrots (if you have something, of course). But boiled carrots are a product for everyone: who among us doesn’t know children who squeamishly fish out pieces of carrots from soup or even from Olivier salad? However, boiled carrots are an ideal side dish for red meat, as they improve iron absorption and make animal protein easier to digest.

Black tomatoes.

It was in black color that tomatoes were first grown by the Aztecs in the 8th century BC. At the same time, there were both yellow and white tomatoes. However, it is black ones that can easily be classified as aphrodisiacs, since they not only contain large amounts of vitamin C, but also increase sexual activity.

A new variety of black tomatoes called “kumato” has now been developed. This is a relative of the wild plant Lycopersicon cheesmanii, native to the Galapagos Islands, where it is also green and even striped. It is the same size as regular tomatoes, but is sweeter and has a brownish-black skin. It took six years of scientific research to perfect this vegetable enough to begin selling it in Europe. At the same time, it remains a completely natural, non-genetically modified product.

When tomatoes were first grown by the Aztecs and Incas in the 8th century, they were not only red, but also yellow, green, red, white and black. They were grown in what is now Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Mexico. But when the tomato arrived in Europe in the 16th century, it was only yellow or red.

In addition to the benefits that regular tomatoes have - high levels of vitamin C and antioxidants - Kumato has the ability to improve the intimate life of reptiles. It is believed that those turtles that eat these tomatoes mate significantly more than those that do not eat tomatoes. This reminds us that in the old days tomatoes were considered natural aphrodisiacs.

Vegetable cubism and other things

The experiment of growing cube watermelons was first started in Japan, where Centxu farmers came up with the idea of ​​growing cube watermelons, which take up less space than regular watermelons.

They placed the watermelons in square plastic boxes while they were still growing on the vine. The grown watermelons took the shape of a box, resulting in cubic fruits, which makes them easy to pack and store in refrigerators. The boxes in which the watermelons were grown were the same size as the shelves of Japanese refrigerators, and the finished product fit easily into the refrigerator.

Their only drawback is their slightly higher cost. Well, a square watermelon is more interesting.

In the photo: a watermelon with artificially changed geometry, on the right is a container for giving this shape.

In many countries, the production of other cube-shaped vegetables has also been launched. It is interesting that melon growers from many countries around the world decided to adopt the experience of growing fruits of non-standard shape. For example, in the capital

Since 2001, the United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi has grown not only cubic tomatoes and cucumbers, but also bell pepper and zucchini. Ali bin Mohammed bin Rassas Al Mansoori said that the experiment of growing geometric vegetables was 100% successful.
However, farmers did not stop there and successfully grow pyramidal watermelons, which are difficult to transport, but they are more impressive on the table.

RARE VEGETABLES

Do we use all the vegetable plants that grow in nature? How many of them do we know and eat? For example, most of us are well aware of the basic White cabbage, while the genus “cabbage” has 250 varieties, as well as onions and many other vegetables.

In a number of countries, many plants are popular as vegetables. Residents of some European countries They season soups with calendula and dandelion flowers, believing that it is tasty and healthy. In Mexico, yucca flowers, a fibrous ornamental plant from the lily family, are fried. The Chinese' favorite vegetable dishes are prepared from bamboo shoots and lotus roots. In Japan, in addition to bamboo and lotus, the roots of the gobo plant (our name burdock) are added to food. In France, a special, very aromatic jelly is prepared from violets. Alfalfa buds are included in some English salads.

More than 1500 years ago, the Slavs knew how to grow turnips, radishes, peas, carrots, cabbage, and cucumbers. Ancient chronicles say that many vegetable and melon crops cultivated in Russia in those distant times were not known in Europe and their appearance and taste delighted foreign ambassadors, merchants and travelers.

With the development of the study of vitamins, the identification of their influence on the vitality of the human body and digestion, the range of vegetables has also expanded significantly.

Vegetables – these are the richest “piggy banks” of vitamins, mineral salts, phytoncides, fiber, essential oils and many substances useful to humans. They stimulate appetite, improve digestion and absorption of food, and help neutralize harmful acids formed in the body. Vegetables vary quite dramatically in their nutritional benefits. Therefore, the more variety of vegetables on the menu, the more complete the nutrition.

Green vegetable plants.

These include lettuce, spinach, dill, watercress, borage and other fast-growing leafy vegetables.

Their value is due to the high content of various vitamins, organic acids, mineral salts and microelements that contribute to proper metabolism and the normal functioning of the human body. They are rich in ascorbic acid, carotene, B vitamins and other valuable substances.

Salad - one of the oldest vegetable plants, which was known in ancient times to the Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. In Europe, where it appeared in cultivation in the middle of the 16th century, and in the USA it now occupies a leading place among other vegetable crops.

Endive and escarole chicory salads - they originated from India, from where they were brought to Egypt, then spread to the Mediterranean countries, and in the 16th - 17th centuries. - in countries Western Europe.

They are currently grown in most European countries. In our country, these types of salad are little known, but undoubtedly deserve distribution. The plants have a bitter taste, which is due to the presence of intibin, which has a beneficial effect on nervous system, general metabolism, liver, gallbladder and stomach functions.

Spinach – Iran is considered its homeland. Its wild species are found in Transcaucasia and Central Asia. It appeared in Europe in the 15th century. from Spain, where it was previously brought by the Arabs.

Due to its early ripening and cold resistance, spinach is grown in various countries as a valuable green crop not only in the spring; in the southern regions it can be harvested in autumn and winter.

This is a very valuable vegetable crop from the goosefoot family.

Spinach leaves contain a variety of vitamins, are rich in protein and salts of iron, phosphorus, and calcium. In 100 gr. spinach has a lot of potassium - 742 mg. The leaves contain spinach secretin, which has a beneficial effect on the activity of the stomach and pancreas. Due to its high iron and folic acid content, spinach is prescribed as remedy for some blood diseases.

The leaves of young plants are eaten. They are used to prepare salads, purees, soups, green cabbage soup, and consumed boiled and stewed. In the canning industry, spinach juice is used to color green peas intensely green. Used as dietary and baby food.

For long-term storage, spinach can be frozen, canned or dried. Fresh frozen, it can be stored at a temperature of -1 degree for 2-3 months.

There are as many B vitamins and carotene in canned spinach as in fresh spinach.

Watercress - was famous in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. Distributed in many countries as an early ripening, spicy salad plant.

Young leaves and stems of watercress have a horseradish or mustard flavor and serve as a pleasant herbal appetizer for various meat and fish dishes. The presence of mustard oil gives watercress leaves a pleasant, slightly pungent taste.

Watercress leaves are rich in mineral salts (potassium - 287 mg%, calcium - 188 mg%), iron, vitamin C, carotene, contain iodine and rutin. A valuable phytoncidal plant, strengthens the nervous system, improves appetite, protects against scurvy and anemia. It has diuretic properties and is known in folk medicine as a means to cleanse the respiratory tract.

Field salad - common in Western European countries. In the wild it is found among field cereal crops. It is also called valerian, rapunzel. Distributed in the European part of the Russian Federation, in the Ciscaucasia, Western and Eastern Kazakhstan.

Salad mustard – leaf mustard is widespread in India, Japan, China, where there is a large
variety of its varieties and forms. From here it came to other countries and is grown everywhere as an early ripening salad plant.

Salad mustard leaves are rich in vitamins: C – 80 mg%, B1 – 0.8 mg% and B2 – 0.17 mg%. Contains 1.69 – 4.5 mg% carotene, 20 mg rutin, 182 mg% calcium and 2.4 mg% iron.

Leaves and rosettes of young plants are eaten. Mustard sprouts are used for coughs, eczema, to cleanse the intestines, etc.

Chinese cabbage - A vegetable plant widespread in China and Japan. It was brought to Europe in the 18th century. Distributed mainly as a salad crop.

Its edible tuberous structures are used as vegetables. They are eaten boiled, fried and pickled.

Stachys bushes are similar to mint, but their roots at a depth of 5 to 15 cm are equipped with a large number of nodules, similar to white oblong shells; their weight is 4-6, sometimes up to 10 g. They are used for food. Stachys is delicious. When cooked, it is somewhat reminiscent of asparagus, cauliflower and even young corn. It’s easy to prepare: the nodules, thoroughly washed under a strong stream of water, are boiled for 5-6 minutes in salted boiling water. Drain in a colander and place on plates; it turns out to be a hot dish that is flavored with butter.

Stahis can be eaten fried, pickled and salted. It is also original on the holiday table. It can be used as a side dish for many main dishes. Stachys is added to soups and vegetable stew. Dried vegetables can be stored for years. Stachis crushed into flour can be sprinkled on sandwiches and flavored with sauces. Children enjoy gnawing on the raw nodules.

Stachys does not contain any starch and is essentially an ideal food for diabetes. The nodules have an insulin-like effect. In addition, stachys is healing for diseases of the respiratory tract and gastrointestinal diseases. It normalizes blood pressure and has a calming effect on the central nervous system.

Plants of the cabbage group.

Vegetable peas – from the areas of the Mediterranean Sea, India, Tibet, and Asia came to Europe. Its seeds were discovered in pile buildings dating back to the Early Stone and Bronze Ages.

Its value lies in its high content of mineral salts and vitamins, especially group B.

Quantity minerals in 100 g of peas (mg): sodium – 2, potassium – 236, magnesium – 23, calcium – 26, iron – 0.7, phosphorus – 119, iodine – 4.2.

Green pea varieties of vegetable peas contain 6-9% sugar. A large amount of vitamins and the presence of alkaline salts in natural canned green peas allow them to be used as a dietary product and in medicinal purposes to prevent vitamin deficiency. Of great importance green pea and for feeding children.

Vegetable beans – the birthplace of garden beans is America, where they were grown even before Columbus’s discovery. In the 16th century She appeared in Europe. Only ripe grains were eaten, and later green beans.

Amount of minerals in 100 g of beans (mg): sodium – 1.7, potassium – 256, magnesium – 26.0, calcium – 50.8, iron – 0.79, phosphorus – 37.0, iodine – 3.0 .

In terms of nutritional composition, mature bean seeds, like other legumes, can replace meat in human nutrition. For diseases of the liver and gall bladder, it is used as a dietary product.

Vegetable beans – were widely used as food by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Dry bean seeds contain a lot of protein (23-25%), unripe ones contain vitamin C - 25 mg%, B1 - 0.1 mg%, B2 - 0.15 mg% and nicotinic acid - 0.9 mg%. Beans contain the amino acids arginine, histidine, methionine and lysine.

Onion.

Leek – was known to the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks and was widely used in cooking. It has a beneficial effect on the digestive organs, increases appetite, improves the functioning of the liver and gall bladder. 10 grams of fresh leek contains up to 254 grams of potassium. Thanks to these qualities, it is especially recommended for kidney stones, as well as for rheumatism, gout and obesity. In terms of the content of carotene, vitamins C and B, it is superior to onion. It contains up to 37% essential oil, which contains sulfur.

While in all vegetables the content of vitamin C decreases significantly during storage, in the fleshy leg of a leek it even increases.

Leeks are consumed raw, chopped, seasoned with vegetable oil. It is added to salads and side dishes. It is widely used for drying - it is included in dry vegetable mixtures along with carrots, parsley and celery.

It is added to all soups. When boiled, it is a side dish for fish and meat dishes. The stems are stewed in large quantities of water, add vinegar or lemon juice, butter and eat hot. Stewed leeks are also seasoned with mayonnaise, tomato sauce, adding parsley, dill, celery to taste, or cold, seasoning with vegetable oil, mustard and vinegar or lemon juice and finely chopped garlic.

Stewed leek is baked with white sauce and grated cheese.

Onion – may also be called winter onion, Tatar onion, sand onion. It is called winter for its exceptional cold resistance. It grows wild in Siberia and the Far East.

The leaves of this onion contain 2 times more vitamin C than lemon. In addition, they contain carotene, vitamins B1, B2, PP, and contain potassium, magnesium, and iron salts. The leaves contain 6.5 - 7.8% dry matter, 2.4 - 3% sugar, 1.7% protein and other useful substances.

Young onion leaves are used as a seasoning. In spring, greens with onions are used instead onions, fry, stew, prepare filling for pies.

The onion family also includes chives (chives) – the earliest of all onions, its young leaves contain about 80 mg% vitamin C and 2.5 mg% carotene. Finely chopped chives are added to soups, sauces, put in salads, seasoned with herring and sprinkled on sandwiches. For harvesting for future use, young greens can be dried and stored in jars with a ground stopper.

Shallot – has a delicate feather and less pungent taste of the bulbs, onion fragrant – its leaves contain a large amount ascorbic acid(30 – 45 mg%), tastes pleasant, with mild pungency.

It would seem that we all know very well the standard set of vegetables: cucumber, tomato, potato, carrot and more. But, probably, none of you even suspected that almost every vegetable we eat every day has its own exotic brother. Meet some of the most exotic vegetables in the world, in my opinion.

Purple carrots

More than one generation of people is convinced that carrots only come in orange, but purple is the original, primordial color of this vegetable.
The Times reports that the color of carrots is due to beta carotene with some addition of the pigment alpha carotene. They contain the purple pigment anthocyanin, which acts as an antioxidant.
Purple carrots are depicted in drawings made in an Egyptian temple as early as 2000 BC. In the tenth century, purple carrots were grown in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern Iran. In the fourteenth century, crimson, white and yellow varieties were imported into southern Europe. Black, red and green carrots were also grown.
Recently, Dutch plant breeders studied the beneficial properties of purple carrots. They believe that the purple vegetable provides the body with additional protection against cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

Black tomatoes

A unique variety of tomatoes. According to some experts, the vegetable contains a certain substance that increases sexual desire many times over.

The new variety of black tomatoes is called "kumato". It is a relative of the wild plant Lycopersicon cheesmanii. It is the same size as regular tomatoes, but is sweeter and has a brown-black skin. It took six years of scientific research to improve this vegetable and begin selling it in Europe. When tomatoes were first grown by the Aztecs and Incas in the 8th century, they were not only red, but also yellow, green, red, white and black. They were grown in what is now Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Mexico.
This tomato-blackberry cross can prolong the life of mice prone to colon cancer by 30%. In addition to the benefits that regular tomatoes have - high levels of vitamin C and antioxidants.

Rainbow cabbage

"Rainbow" cauliflower appearedin England. The British company Syngeta has launched a new variety of cauliflower on the market - Rainbow Cauliflowers, the inflorescences of which are painted in bright orange, green and purple colors. It tastes exactly the same as cabbage, but it adds color to cooked dishes - the new variety does not lose its rich color even after cooking.
Another advantage of the world's most cauliflower is that the orange variety contains 25 times more beta-carotene than regular cauliflower florets, and the purple variety is rich in anthocyanin, which is useful for preventing heart disease by slowing down blood clotting.
Company representative Andrew Coker emphasized that the unusual colors of cabbage are not a product of genetic engineering at all, but the result of traditional selection, which took decades.

Strawberry pineberry

The fruit, which has the same genetic structure as a regular strawberry, but tastes and smells like pineapple, is considered to come from South America. Dutch farmers discovered it there and have been successfully growing it in greenhouses for seven years. The unique species was on the verge of extinction when Dutch farmers revived it in greenhouses. When unripe, the berries are green, and their ripeness is indicated by white skin and red seeds.

purple potatoes

A new variety of deep purple potato has gone on sale in the UK. All derivatives from this vegetable also remain purple - chips, mashed potatoes etc. Dubbed Purple Majesty, the potato tastes just like its more familiar cousins, but is loaded with anthocyanins, which give blueberries, blackberries and eggplant their distinctive flavors.
A new variety is being grown in Scotland. Blue potatoes are divided into several types. For example, the Franzosische Truffel-kartoffel and Linzer Blaue varieties do not lose their color during cooking and remain darkblue in color and very boiled. Whereas the other two Linzer Roze and Kipfler take a long time to cook and do not become overcooked, but during the cooking process they lose their unusual color. They are usually used raw with Jerusalem artichoke when preparing salads.

Red cucumbers

These vegetables are only conventionally called “red cucumbers.” In fact, they have nothing in common with classic cucumbers. They do not have their own taste and are used more for decorative purposes.
This vegetable is very similar in appearance to a cucumber, although its color is bright red. But it just tastes “no good.” In fact, this fruit belongs to the gourd family and is called “red cucumber” or “tladiantha dubious”. This miracle was brought to Europe from Southeast Asia, and is considered more of an ornamental plant than an edible one. However, if you plant this beauty at your dacha, then in a couple of years your entire garden will be a continuous thicket of red cucumbers.

CabbageRomanescu

It is a close relative of broccoli and cauliflower. If you love cabbage, then you will definitely love this fantastic vegetable. In addition, this amazing vegetable is literally packed with antioxidants.
Romanescu, or Romanesque broccoli, cauliflower. Designers and 3D artists admire its exotic, fractal-like shapes. Cabbage buds grow in a logarithmic spiral. The first mention of Romanescu cabbage came from Italy in the 16th century.
Romaine broccoli has the most subtle flavor that cabbage can have. Romanescu is not crumbly, tastier than broccoli, sweetish with a nutty, rather than sulfuric, flavor. A fresh head of romanesca cabbage should be stored in the refrigerator for no more than 4 days. Since cabbage is hard, the head of cabbage is cut into pieces with a serrated knife.

A casserole is prepared with pieces of romanesca cabbage and served with bechamel sauce and Roquefort cheese. Romanescu cabbage is rich in antioxidant carotenoids and vitamin C.
This exotic vegetable is easy to grow for those who have experience growing broccoli, since the agricultural technology is identical.

goat beard

Goat's beard root is very popular in Europe and the southern United States. It is pungent and tastes like oysters, which is why it is sometimes called an “oyster plant.” Typically used as an additive to a variety of dishes, from soups to stews. Like all root vegetables, goat's beard root can be boiled and pureed.

Hybrid fruits and vegetables

Every year more and more hybrid fruits and vegetables appear in stores, although just recently an ordinary banana was truly exotic for Russian buyers. Hybrids (that is, fruits that were born as a result of interspecific crossing of plants, and not at all as a result of genetic experiments) have become quite firmly entrenched on store shelves, and hybrid fruits such as nectarines and miniolas, as it now seems, have always been there.

However, the range, of course, is not limited to these two fruits. Let's look at some of the most interesting fruits and vegetables that were born thanks to selection.

In appearance it is an ordinary striped watermelon, only inside it is bright yellow. But in addition to the unusual color, this watermelon contains very few seeds compared to the usual one. This watermelon was born as a result of crossing a wild watermelon, which is yellow in color (although it is impossible to eat), with a regular one. And now round yellow watermelons are grown in the summer in Spain, and oval ones in the winter in Thailand. By the way, yellow watermelon is especially respected there, because according to Thai beliefs, the yellow color attracts money. This watermelon is tender and juicy, although not as sweet as the red one.

There are yellow watermelons in Russia too, and they come from Astrakhan. For ten years, the head of the melon crops selection department of the All-Russian Research Institute of Irrigated Vegetable and Melon Growing, Sergei Sokolov, worked on developing a new variety, until finally he was able to obtain a variety that he named “Lunny”. By the way, the Russian variety - unlike foreign ones - is very sweet and has an exotic flavor, about which opinions differ: whether it is lemon, or mango, or pumpkin.

It is worth saying that experiments on breeding yellow watermelon have been going on for a long time. For example, Ukrainian breeders were less fortunate than Russian ones. As a result of crossing, they got a hybrid called “Kavbuz”, which took only the flavor from the watermelon, and everything else went to the pumpkin. It is best used for making porridge.

Pluot

A hybrid of plum and apricot, pluot is named after the first and last syllable of the two English words: plum (plum) and apricot (apricot). Pluot, which still goes more like a plum, has a brother - aprium, which, on the contrary, is more like an apricot.

The outside of the pluot can be pink, green, burgundy and purple, and the inside can range from white to deep plum. The authors of this fruit charge a royalty of about $2 per seedling. It was bred in 1989 at the Dave Wilson Nursery in California, where they first grew seedlings of ordinary fruit trees for sale, and then began creating their own varieties. Today in the world there are eleven varieties of pluot, two varieties of aprium (a hybrid obtained from crossing apricot and plum), one variety nectaflame(a hybrid of nectarine and plum), as well as one variety pitchplama(hybrid of peach and plum).

They say that pluot makes excellent juice, desserts, homemade preparations and even wine. And when fresh, it is a real delicacy, because pluot is much sweeter than both plums and apricots.

Watermelon radish

The watermelon radish seems to have been turned inside out - it is raspberry-colored not on the outside, but on the inside. On top it is covered with a white-green skin, which makes it look like a watermelon. In shape and size, this radish is similar to a medium-sized turnip or radish, and its diameter is 7-8 cm. On the outside, the radish, as expected, is bitter, but closer to the core it becomes sweetish. However, it is not as crispy and juicy as the regular variety, and is much harder.

It is recommended to bake watermelon radishes, make a puree from them, add them to vegetables for frying or to a salad. Slices of watermelon radish sprinkled with black sesame seeds or black salt look very impressive. In California, this dish is a restaurant hit. Buyers head to farmers' markets to find bunches of the best watermelon radishes. In Russia, this vegetable is easy to grow in the countryside.

Yoshta

To give the name to the fruit of love between currants and gooseberries, joshte, two German words johannisbeere (currant) and stachelbeere (gooseberry) were combined. Yoshta berries are almost black in color, the size of a cherry, have a sweet and sour taste, are slightly astringent and have a pleasant flavor of currants.

Michurin dreamed of creating currants the size of gooseberries, but without thorns. He managed to breed a dark purple gooseberry, which was called “Black Moor”. Around the same time, Paul Lorenz was working on creating a hybrid in Berlin. By 1939, he had grown 1000 seedlings, from which he intended to choose the best, but the Second World War began World War. And only by 1970, the German scientist Rudolf Bauer managed to create the ideal hybrid. Now there are two varieties of yoshta: “Black” and “Red”, brown-burgundy and faded red, respectively.

A yoshta bush produces 7-10 kg of berries per season, which are used in desserts, homemade preparations, and even for flavoring soda. It is recommended to eat Yoshta for gastrointestinal diseases, to improve blood circulation and remove radioactive substances and heavy metals from the body.

Yoshta, like currants, is a rare guest on store shelves, and you can only buy it at farmers' markets. Or collect it from a bush grown at your own dacha.

Broccolini

It's hard to believe that Brussels sprouts, Savoy sprouts, broccoli and kohlrabi are related. Recently there was an addition to the cabbage row. Crossing regular broccoli with the gailan vegetable (Chinese broccoli) resulted in a plant that looks like asparagus with a broccoli head at the top. Broccolini does not have a sharp cabbage spirit, it is slightly sweet, with a peppery note, delicate in taste, reminiscent of broccoli and asparagus at the same time. The new vegetable contains a lot of useful substances and is low in calories.

In the USA, Spain, Brazil, and Asian countries, broccolini is a common side dish. It is usually either lightly fried in oil or served fresh, drizzled with oil. Broccolini tastes great in oriental and Italian dishes.

Nashi

Nashi is a hybrid of apple and pear, cultivated for many centuries in Asia. It is also called Asian, sand, water or Japanese pear. A round apple tastes like a juicy, crisp pear. The color of the fruit ranges from pale green to orange. Apple pear has an advantage over regular pears: it is harder, so it tolerates transportation and storage better.

It is better to use the fruit solo or in salads, because neshi contains a lot of water, which is not very good for heat treatment. In addition, nashi are served as an appetizer with wine along with grapes and cheese. There are about 10 particularly popular commercial varieties of neshi, grown in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, France and Cyprus.

Yuzu

Yuzu, or Japanese lemon, is a hybrid of mandarin and ichang papeda (ornamental citrus). The yellow or green fruit with lumpy skin is the size of a tangerine and has a bright aroma and sour taste. It has been used by the Japanese since the 7th century, when Buddhist monks brought it to the islands from the mainland. The fruit is also popular in the cooking of Korea and China.

Yuzu is used in most cases as a fragrance. It has an amazing aroma - citrus, with notes of pine and floral undertones. Yuzu zest is one of the most popular Japanese seasonings. It is used for meat and fish dishes, added to soup, meat, and noodles. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, jams, syrups, and desserts are made from the zest. Sour, aromatic and less straightforward than lemon, yuzu juice is used as a vinegar and is also the base for the popular ponzu sauce.

Yuzu is used not only in cooking. This fruit is part of the Japanese winter solstice festival, which is celebrated on December 22. On this day, adults and children take baths with yuzu fruits, symbolizing the sun. In hot water, the fruit smells even stronger and, according to legend, drives away evil forces. It is believed that after a bath with yuzu a person will not suffer from a cold for a year, especially if after the water procedures he snacks on pumpkin, another symbol of the sun. Pets are also dipped into the yuzu bath, and plants are watered with the remaining water.

Yellow beets

IN whether the yellow beet, or, as it is also called, golden beet, will receive recognition at Russian market. The yellow borscht, beetroot soup, vinaigrette, and herring under a yellow coat are incomprehensible to the mind. But Americans, far from Russian kitchen traditions, on the contrary, cannot get enough of yellow beets - they do not get dirty when cooked.

The taste of this vegetable is practically no different from what we are used to. Just as sweet, aromatic, ready to make friends with any product - from cheese and smoked meats to citrus fruits, good baked and even in chips. Yellow beet leaves can be used fresh in salads. 9 times