Nutritional value of hazelnuts. What components our body needs are contained in it. What are the useful properties of the product, can it be harmful. Recipes for interesting dishes with nuts. Well, you see, the wide range of useful properties of hazelnuts is impressive. It's amazing how such a delicious treat can have such a beneficial effect on the body. We highly recommend including walnuts in your diet, especially for vegans and others who are poor for one reason or another. It's a great way to follow your principles while staying healthy.
Contraindications and harm to hazelnuts
However, before you get into the habit of eating a handful of hazelnuts every day, you need to make sure that contraindications to this nut do not apply to you. Yes, even such a useful product has them.
Whom can hazelnuts harm? First, people with severe diabetes and liver disease. In addition, allergy sufferers should eat it with caution, because hazelnuts, like all nuts, are an allergenic product.
For the same reason, it is not recommended for pregnant and lactating women, despite the fact that the nut contains a lot of vitamins and minerals important for the development of the fetus and the product itself is lactogonic.
And finally, it is worth saying that hazelnut harm can become a real prospect for everyone if this product is abused. If you follow these recommendations, the product is unlikely to negatively affect your condition. However, we consider it our duty to warn you: if you have serious health problems that are not listed above, it is better to consult with your doctor before introducing hazelnuts into your diet.
How hazelnuts are eaten
If you want to get the most out of the nut, then it is best to buy it with a shell, which must be removed with a special hammer just before use. The fact is that when it is removed, useful substances from the nucleoli begin to evaporate.
In addition, you need to understand that fresh fruits are most beneficial, and hazelnuts ripen by the end of summer. It is hardly worth waiting for a therapeutic effect from nuts bought already without a shell - dried or fried, but they still remain a good source of nutrients, although there will be much less of them than in a freshly peeled kernel.
Hazelnut recipes
As we said above, hazelnuts can be used not only as an independent product, but also as an ingredient for various dishes. Nuts can be turned into flour and healthy cookies can be made, milk can be squeezed out of them using a blender and porridge can be cooked on its basis and various tasty and healthy drinks can be made. Of course, it is not forbidden to use them and in a more prosaic way - add them to meat, fish, vegetable dishes, sauces and, of course, desserts.
Let's take a look at the most interesting recipes with hazelnuts:
- Lamb loin in aromatic sauce … Peel the loin (1 kg) from fat and films, divide into 4 parts, rub with salt and black pepper. Preheat a skillet and fry it on all sides until golden brown in vegetable oil. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and put the meat in it for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine chicken stock (200 ml) and red wine (100 ml), simmer until the sauce thickens. Heat some butter in a skillet, fry finely chopped red onions (2 pieces) and garlic (8 cloves) in it, cool and mix with chopped hazelnuts (150 grams) and cilantro (100 grams). Remove the loin and spread with the resulting paste, put in the oven for another 10 minutes. Serve meat with your favorite side dish and sauce of chicken broth and wine, rice and green peas are perfect with lamb.
- Couscous with pesto and hazelnuts … Pour boiling water over the couscous (80 grams), cover and leave for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the tomato (1 piece) into small cubes and coarsely chop the hazelnuts (20 grams). Mix the finished couscous with tomatoes and nuts, season with pesto sauce (50 grams) - you can buy it, or you can cook it yourself.
- Flourless Italian biscuits … In a coffee grinder or food processor, grind the hazelnuts (350 grams) and sugar (250 grams) into flour. Beat whites (4 pieces) separately with a pinch of salt into a stiff foam. Pour it gradually into the nut flour, then add vanilla (1 teaspoon). Shape the cookies into the desired shape and place them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.
- Date and nut sweets … Peel the dates (500 grams), grind them in a coffee grinder or blender - if the blender doesn’t take it, add a little water, but don’t be too zealous, otherwise the candy will not work. Nuts - hazelnuts (70 grams) and almonds (70 grams) - grind in a coffee grinder, you should get not quite flour, but not large pieces. Now make a "dough" of nuts and dates, roll it into a large ball. Then, pinching off a small piece, form small candy balls. Dip each in slightly warmed honey (90 grams), and then immediately in coconut flakes (30 grams). The output will be about 30-40 candies.
- Hearty hazelnut milk cocktail … Soak nuts (50 grams) in water overnight, transfer to a blender in the morning and fill with clean water (150-180 grams). Turn on the machine for 15-30 seconds - clear water will turn into white milk, strain it and pour it back into a clean blender. Add coarsely chopped banana (1 piece), peanut butter (1 tablespoon) and dry oatmeal (2 tablespoons). Turn on the blender for 30 seconds. A delicious and healthy cocktail you can drink. Garnish with finely grated dark chocolate, if desired.
Just look at the variety of dishes - now, we hope, the question of what to cook from hazelnuts has disappeared for you. Be sure to surprise your family with one of these dishes!
Interesting facts about hazelnuts
At the beginning of the article, we mentioned that hazelnuts grow on a cultivated tree called hazel. It's funny that it received it in honor of the fish, because the leaves of the plant very much resemble bream.
Hazelnuts are respected as a tasty product, as an effective medicine, and as a cosmetic product. Doctors and healers used the fruits of common hazel to treat a variety of diseases, including even epilepsy.
This nut is often recommended for recovery, for one reason or another, of an exhausted body and to support athletes who regularly expose themselves to increased physical exertion.
By the way, in ancient Greece and Rome, to maintain health and increase endurance, they regularly ate nuts, ground with dried apricots. However, even today this combination of products is considered extremely useful.
In ancient Babylon, hazel was a forbidden delicacy for ordinary workers, and not because of its high cost, but because it was believed that it stimulates brain activity, and for workers, such an effect was assumed to be more harmful than useful. Excessive thoughts distract from work.
In Medieval England, there was a belief: if you plant such a tree on your wedding day, a boy will be born.
The Slavs, however, even attributed magical properties to hazel, it was believed that it not only bestows youth and prolongs life, but also protects the well-being of the family. There was a tradition to lay nuts in the corners of the house to appease deceased relatives. Watch a video about hazelnuts:
Hazelnut is a unique product. That rare case when it is tasty, nutritious and healthy. Everyone needs to include these nuts in their diet to never be deficient in vitamins, minerals and other beneficial components. You can eat them both as an independent product and as part of dishes. However, it is very important to study its contraindications before using hazelnuts, so as not to inadvertently harm the body instead of benefit.
