What vitamins, minerals and acids are included in the Mexican chayote cucumber. How is it useful for health and can it somehow harm. How to use it in cooking and what interesting things they say about it. This vegetable is very necessary for vegetarians, vegans, raw foodists and all those who decide to purify the body. It will come in handy for those suffering from obesity and simply overweight. It is always useful to include it in diet menus. It will be enough to consume 2-3 fruits every few days.
Note! Most of all, the benefit of Mexican chayote cucumber is raw, rather than canned or thermally processed.
Harm and contraindications to the use of Mexican cucumber
This vegetable is one of the few that can be eaten by almost everyone and always - children, pregnant women, the elderly. There are no restrictions on the quantity, it is allowed to eat it as much as you want. The main rule is that it should not be on an empty stomach, otherwise the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines will be irritated, which will provoke colic. It is not recommended to lean on the fruits before bedtime, as they take a long time to digest.
Reducing the consumption of Mexican cucumber to a minimum amount is necessary in the following cases:
- Gastritis … With such a disease, you can eat in small quantities only raw and thermally processed vegetables, canned vegetables can cause abdominal cramps. But in any case, it will have to be peeled from the peel that irritates the walls of the organ.
- Increased acidity of the stomach … If you use chayote, its level will increase even more, which will lead to nausea, weakness, and bouts of pain in the navel area.
- Kidney pathology … You can not use such a cucumber in case of kidney failure and disruption of the work of this organ, when it is required to limit the amount of fluid you drink.
Important! It is not allowed to eat a vegetable if there is an individual intolerance to it.
Mexican chayote cucumber recipes
The fruit of the plant is an excellent ingredient for making sauces, spices, baked goods and caviar. They are used raw, fried, canned, pickled, stewed and baked. They can be easily combined with mashed potatoes, stews, meat and fish dishes. Vegetables are especially tasty when combined with tomatoes, carrots, eggplants, and onions. Given the existing contraindications for Mexican chayote cucumber, it will be very useful to use it at any time of the year, but it goes best in summer.
Here are a few of the current recipes:
- Pickling … Wash and peel 1.5 kg of staple vegetables. Then cut them into slices, rub with salt and leave for 30 minutes to let the juice out. At this time, divide into three parts a small bunch of dill, cut in half 5 cloves of garlic, horseradish root (2 pcs.) And remove 10 black peppercorns from the bag. Then wash 0.5 liter jars, sterilize them, put the prepared ingredients on the bottom and then the cucumbers themselves. Pour marinade over them (5 liters of water + 2 tablespoons of salt + 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of vinegar). Now just roll up the cans and put them upside down in a cool place for three days. It will be possible to use canned food after a week.
- Spring salad … This is one of the simpler recipes. You just need to grate 300 g of cucumbers without peel, salt them, season with mayonnaise (2 tablespoons) and sprinkle with chopped dill (2-3 umbrellas). This is a great addition to mashed potatoes, pilaf, naval pasta.
- Soup-puree … First of all, potatoes (2 pcs.), Carrots (3 pcs.) And onions (1 pc.) Are peeled. Boil all this whole and grind with a blender. Then pour boiling water over 2 large cucumbers without the peel, salt the water and leave the vegetable for 10 minutes. After this time, it is twisted in a meat grinder and added to other ingredients. Season the finished first course with salt, pepper and sprinkle with dill or dried basil.
- Sandwich … First, rub the pork (500 g) with salt, brown cane sugar, coriander, black pepper and mustard. Leave the meat for 20 minutes and in the meantime prepare the marinade for it. To this end, chop the garlic (3 cloves) and cilantro (20 g), mix them with lime juice (160 ml), grated lemon zest (2 tsp) and beer (150 ml). Pour this composition over the meat and send it to the refrigerator for an hour. After this time, cut the pork into thin pieces, wrap in tin foil and bake for 40-50 minutes in the oven. Put the finished steaks on the special sandwich buns cut in half, which must first be poured with olive oil on top. Now, with the help of a vegetable cutter, chop the peeled cucumber (2 pcs.), Cut it into slices and place on top of the meat. Next, the buns need to be poured with olive oil again and put back in the oven for 15 minutes.
- Crisps … Peel 3 cucumbers, cut them into slices and dip in boiling oil in a deep enamel saucepan. It should completely cover the vegetable. Fry it until golden brown on both sides, and then remove it in a metal colander and let the oil drain. Sprinkle with green onions before serving.
- Spicy salad … In a bowl, combine jalapeno peppers (2 green), sweet carrots (1) and Mexican cucumber (3) in a bowl. Pour all this with lime juice (2 tablespoons), olive oil (1, 5 tablespoons) and sprinkle with salt.
- Stuffed … You will need to wash 0.5 kg of cucumbers, cut off the tails and divide them in half lengthwise. Then remove about 50% of the pulp from each piece and place the filling instead. It is prepared from grated hard cheese (320 g) and boiled eggs (5 pcs.). The mass must be salted, pepper, seasoned with sour cream or mayonnaise. For flavor, you can add a little green onions or dill. Put the stuffed cucumbers on a baking sheet and bake in the oven at a minimum temperature for 20 minutes. They are served chilled, with potatoes, noodles, lasagne or any other dish.
Note! The skin of the vegetable is quite hard, so it is recommended to remove it before cooking.
Interesting facts about Mexican chayote cucumber
In cooking, only young fruits with a thin skin are used; overripe too tough even after heat treatment.
Seasonal vegetables are available from June to October; in winter they are imported from warm countries and sold in supermarkets. You can rarely meet them on the market raw; they sell mainly canned vegetables. Probably, the fact is that at room temperature they are stored for no more than 30 days. For preparation for the winter, vacuum packaging is needed. In this case, the fruits are kept in the refrigerator.
Chayote tastes a bit like potatoes, which is why it is prepared in much the same way. A high percentage of starch in the pulp allows such a parallel to be drawn. Because of this, it is often used to make flour. Outwardly, the fruits resemble zucchini.
Chayote is a perennial plant that does not tolerate sub-zero temperatures well. That is why, for the winter, the roots are dug up and taken to the greenhouse or to the house, where they are stored in tubs. Here it can be cultivated all year round, for example, on an insulated balcony.
The vegetable was brought to Eastern Europe only in 1930, but it was only possible to grow it in regions with a subtropical climate - Krasnodar Territory, Caucasus, Stavropol, Crimea.
It is considered one of the most beloved ingredients of the people of Asia, and in Africa it is actively added to bakery products.
Watch a video about Mexican chayote cucumber:
There are tons of options in cooking on how to use this exotic vegetable. Existing Mexican chayote cucumber recipes are impressive in their originality and simplicity. Therefore, at least one of them is definitely worth taking note of!
