Healthy and tasty lagenaria, chemical composition and effect on the body. Contraindications to use, recipes. Interesting facts about gourd, application in applied arts. The smell of the pumpkin pulp is very weak, and the taste is not pronounced, a little bitter. This can be explained by a small amount of a complex of various acids in the Lagenaria: saturated fatty acids - only 0.05 g, and unsaturated fatty ones - even less - 0.01 g.
Useful properties of lagenaria pumpkin
The medicinal value of pumpkin is due to its rich mineral composition. It should be noted that for medicinal purposes, the benefit of lagenaria is provided not only by the pulp, but also by the seeds and leaves of the vine. The effect of calabas on the body:
- Strengthens the body's defenses, normalizes the immune status, stimulates the production of macrophages.
- Normalizes metabolic processes, stabilizes the intestines, prevents constipation, activating the vital activity of beneficial intestinal bacteria.
- It stabilizes the work of the heart, improves blood circulation, and normalizes the function of the heart muscle.
- Prevents the development of varicose veins and the formation of blood clots.
- It prevents obesity, stimulates the removal of excess fluid and the transformation of fatty deposits into water and glycerin.
- Dissolves calculi of various composition, cleans the kidneys and biliary tract from them.
- Removes toxins from the liver.
- It suppresses the activity of parasites localized in various areas of the human body. During the treatment of helminthic invasions, they try to include lagenaria in the patient's diet.
- It lowers cholesterol levels, prevents the development of atherosclerosis, and prevents vascular thrombosis.
- Stimulates the regenerative functions of the skin. In this case, not only the pulp is used, but also the leaves of the plant, which are applied to the lesions.
- It has antioxidant effects, binds free radicals and removes them from the body.
Gourd juice can cure dysentery, dubage can be done - blind probing. The seeds help get rid of helminthic infestations if the parasites are localized in the intestines.
The leaves of the plant contain substances that reduce pressure. But the most pronounced effect of lagenaria is manifested in inflammatory processes of the bladder. For chronic cystitis, pumpkin can be used prophylactically.
A properly prepared product is a valuable medicinal resource - dishes made from it are not only tasty, but also healthy.
Harm and contraindications to the use of lagenaria
Contraindications to lagenaria are largely due to the pronounced beneficial effect.
Consider when it shouldn't be abused:
- With caution, Lagenaria should be introduced into the menu at reduced pressure - the diuretic effect will further reduce it, weakness and dizziness will appear. That is, the blood pressure indicator will decrease even more.
- During pregnancy, the kidneys can withstand an increased load, and an increase in the amount of fluid removed from the body can provoke the onset of the inflammatory process. At the same time, metabolic processes should not be accelerated - you can tone the uterus.
- With low blood clotting, frequent consumption of pumpkin dishes can provoke internal bleeding.
- Eating raw pumpkin or large amounts of juice can provoke intestinal cramps, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Another contraindication to adding gourd dishes to the menu is individual intolerance. If allergic reactions appear during use, the useful product will have to be abandoned.
Lagenaria recipes
Culinary experts use in their dishes not only the pulp of a vegetable, but also leaves, seeds and young shoots. The technology for processing the pulp is the same as for cooking ordinary zucchini or pumpkin. But if ordinary pumpkin can be added to a salad raw, then they try not to use a gourd in such recipes - they eat unripe fruits, and they taste bitter. In order not to spoil the whole dish and take advantage of the beneficial properties, it is preferable to use zucchini varieties for culinary purposes - they are called "Vietnamese zucchini". They are sweeter.
Lagenaria recipes:
- Salad … It can be used for both food and medicinal purposes. A large piece of unripe pulp is placed literally for a minute in boiling water with sugar - you do not need to sweeten the boiling water much, it is enough if the sweetness is slightly felt. Then grate the pumpkin, add salt, add parsley, season with mayonnaise or sour cream. You can try adding raw pumpkin to the dish, then add a little sugar or honey to the dressing.
- Pancakes … Grate the lagenaria pulp and celery root in a 1/4 ratio. Add pancake flour, eggs, salt, sugar and knead the dough so that you can freely pour into the pan. Mix until completely homogeneous and very quickly so that the vegetables do not have time to give juice. This property should be taken into account when mixing. Frying is carried out in the same way as in the manufacture of ordinary pancakes - the dough is poured into a hot frying pan and fried on both sides. Sour cream or thick yogurt is served with the pancakes.
- Stuffed pumpkin … It is better to choose a fruit that resembles a long cucumber in shape - the zucchini variety looks like this. Mushroom or meat mince is mixed with rice, chopped tomatoes, onions. You should not turn everything together through a meat grinder - the meat is chopped together with the onions, and the tomatoes are added separately so that they are felt. Before slicing tomatoes, you need to pour over boiling water to remove the skin-film. A long pumpkin is cut into pieces 2-3 cm long, the seeds are removed, filled with already salted and peppered minced meat, put into a frying pan. Pour the workpieces with sour cream, close the lid and put in the oven, preheated to 180-200 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes.
- Vegetable puree … Carrots (200 g) are cut into strips and sautéed, the onion is chopped and fried in the same pan, and then the tomatoes are placed in cubes there for 2-3 minutes - 200 g. Boil the pumpkin until cooked, combine all the components, interrupt with a blender, salt and sprinkle parsley.
- Caviar … Ingredients: 0, 5 kg of pumpkin without peel and seeds, onion - 150 g, tomatoes - 200 g, sunflower oil - 70 g. Peel and finely chop onion and pumpkin, douse them with boiling water, remove the skin and chop them. They are fried in this order: a deep frying pan is heated, sunflower oil is poured into it, onions are fried, then tomatoes, then lagenaria. The mixture is brought to readiness, salted, pepper, garlic is added to taste. Eat cold.
- Omelette … 2 eggs, 250 g of pumpkin pulp, 50 g of hard salted cheese, a tablespoon of unmelted butter, 70 g of sour cream, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Beat the eggs, add sour cream to them, put a piece of butter in a hot deep frying pan, and when it melts - diced lagenaria. Sprinkle with seasonings, fill with eggs, cover with a lid. At this time, rub the cheese, sprinkle the surface of the omelet and close the lid again. The dish is ready when the cheese is completely melted.
To add an interesting taste to dishes intended for adults, you can add powder from dried and ground pumpkin seeds. First, they should be fried and peeled. Eating the seeds in food has a laxative effect.
Interesting facts about Lagenaria
Archaeologists found dishes made from bottle gourds in a cultural layer on the territory of South America, the formation time of which was estimated as 12 thousand years ago. It can be concluded that then lagenaria was not valued as a food crop - it was grown for the manufacture of dishes. In Africa, the time of the formation of the cultural layer with plant seeds and utensils was determined 9 thousand years ago, a little later.
The distribution of bottle gourd across all continents is explained as follows: ripe fruits do not drown in water, they fell into the ocean and spread throughout the world, seeds that swelled along the way quickly took root in the fertile climate of tropical latitudes.
Depending on the variety, the fruits of lagenaria can resemble the figure of a swan, a long cucumber, a barrel, a bottle with a long neck. It is quite simple to make the dishes: trim the top, pour out the dried seeds, remove the pulp residues with a specially curved wire and dry in a cool dry place. After 15 days, you can already deal with the surface - sanding, varnishing, applying patterns.
A vessel for drinking mate - tea, which has pronounced tonic properties, is made of kalabasa (calabash). It is made from small-sized Lagenaria fruit. Musical instruments are made from larger pumpkins.
Homeopaths and fans of Ayurvedic medicine include gourd salads in the diet in the treatment of obesity.
Home cosmetology offers a mask to nourish very dry skin: a little sour cream is added to the mixture of gourd and cucumber juice (1/1) and left for 15 minutes.
For decorative purposes, the following varieties of Lagenaria are usually grown:
- Cucubitou is small in size, with a bright gold or orange crust. The color of the peel, if not varnished, will fade after six months.
- Lagenaria is round in shape with a green or yellowish brown rind. It can be used to make not only bottles, but also buckets and birdhouses.
See an overview of Lagenaria in the video:
[media = https://www.youtube.com/watch? v = 05tzT6O1GtU] To admire the flowering of the lagenaria, the garden must be visited at night. Bottle gourd flowers bloom only in the dark.