Botanical description of clover and distribution area. Caloric content of plant inflorescences, chemical composition. Useful properties and harm when used. How flowers are picked, what dishes and drinks can be prepared. Legends about them. Clover tinctures are not combined with hormonal drugs, including contraceptives, which include levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol.
With individual intolerance to clover, allergic reactions occur. Symptoms: itching, hay fever, eye pain, redness of the mucous membranes of the nasopharynx and conjunctiva, nausea, headache, in some cases intermenstrual vaginal bleeding.
All contraindications for treatment are taken into account when introducing clover flowers into the diet. Such a diet is not suitable if you have a history of the above diseases and conditions.
How are clover flowers eaten?
Clover growing along roads or near industrial sites should not be harvested. The plant accumulates toxins and carbon monoxide.
For culinary purposes, fresh flowers are used, without sepals and leaves, for medical purposes, inflorescences and 2-3 upper leaves are plucked.
The plant can be eaten and dried. Drying is carried out in the shade in a well-ventilated area. If the pink head has darkened, you need to harvest a new crop. Properly prepared raw materials retain their natural reddish tint.
Clover Flower Recipes
The inflorescences are used as ingredients for salads, added to soups and hot dishes, pickled, and various drinks are prepared.
Delicious Clover Flower Recipes:
- Hearty salad … Cut two hard-boiled eggs, 80 g of fresh clover heads, 200 g of grated carrots and boiled potatoes are mixed. Season with sour cream.
- Vegetable soup … Cook meat broth with onion head, remove it. Pour in sliced potatoes and carrots, grated parsley root. Fry the onions separately. 5 minutes before turning off the soup, add clover heads and tomato sauce. Before serving, season with sour cream and sprinkle with parsley and dill. The proportions of products for 0.5 liters of broth: 200 g of potatoes, 80 g of clover flowers, 50 carrots and fried onions, 15 g of parsley root.
- Bread soup … Mix 200 g of crushed black bread, 3 tablespoons of clover flowers. Pour a liter of boiling water and cook for 3-4 minutes. Before serving, sprinkle with green onions, add olive oil and season with sour cream.
- Casserole … Clover flowers, 50 g, boiled in salted water for 3 minutes, rubbed with boiled potatoes. Combine with grated cheese - a teaspoon. Half the potato dough is leveled in a mold greased with sunflower oil, the clover is laid out and covered with a potato layer. Brush with a beaten egg. They are baked in the oven at a temperature of 160-180 ° C. Together with flowers, you can use leaves and even bake only them.
- Cutlets … This dish uses the whole plant. Cut, departing from the flower by 2-3 cm. It is better to grind the minced meat in a blender: 200 g of rice, 600 g of raw clover, 100 g of fried onions, 2 eggs. Salt and pepper to taste. Cutlets are formed, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried in a pan with sunflower oil.
- Pickled clover … Flowers with top leaves, 1 kg, mixed with carrots, add 1 tablespoon of sugar. Spread in jars so that there is room for the brine. No need to tamp. Dissolve in boiling water 1, 5 tablespoons of coarse salt and fill with brine. The neck is closed with gauze, the container is placed in the basin. Two days later, the first brine is drained, the clover is tasted. If something is missing, a stronger brine is added. Too salty - washed with cold water and poured over with sweet water. Everything is fine - washed, poured with brine prepared with the same amount of salt, but sugar is already added. You can eat in 12 hours.
- Jam … Heads, 300 pieces, are washed with running cold water. Placed in a saucepan, boil - 400-500 ml of liquid. After 10-15 minutes, the flowers are squeezed out, the broth is again put on the fire and sugar is added, 1, 3 kg, and the jam is brought to a thickeness. Poured hot into sterilized jars. Freezes after cooling.
Vitamin Salad Options:
- In equal frequency, mix cutting of nettle leaves and clover buds, a small amount of green onions and sorrel. Salted. Dressing: mayonnaise or sour cream.
- Mix 2 handfuls of clover heads, starting to bloom, boiled rice, one and a half cups, 5 chopped orange slices, a few mint leaves. Season with orange juice and olive oil.
- You need to finely chop a fresh cucumber, a couple of radishes, a glass of flowers and clover leaves, carrots, a small onion. Season with a mixture of sour cream and olive oil.
Clover drinks:
- Toning tea … In equal amounts, mix clover, black currant leaves, add a little mint. Brew 1 tablespoon with a glass of water.
- Clover flower tea … Mix 1 part of raspberry leaves, 1 part of St. John's wort flowers, 5 parts of clover flowers. Brew 2 tablespoons of the mixture with 250 ml of boiling water.
- Cinnamon drink … Fresh clover, 150 g, pour 1.5 liters of water, boil, adding a tablespoon of grated ginger root. Cool, add cinnamon, to taste. They drink it cold.
Instead of sugar, it is advisable to add clover honey to drinks. It has a delicate herbal aroma and caramel aftertaste, and has a pronounced anti-inflammatory effect.
Interesting facts about clover flowers
In ancient Russia, the flower was considered a symbol of love and youth. According to an English legend, an ointment made from open buds destroyed the power of an evil spell. Only the four-leaf clover has similar properties.
The Rusichi added the plant to the summer solstice bonfire (along with eight more herbs). The smoke from dried flowers eliminates failure, lack of money and loneliness. Clover dew restores mental strength, removes damage.
The ritual is performed 5-6 days before the full moon:
- They starve for three days and minimize communication with others. You can only drink water, better than spring water.
- Three mornings in a row come to the clearing with blooming clover, undress, roll three times. Get up, dry without wiping.
- On the fourth morning, flowers are collected, laid out throughout the house, on all horizontal surfaces.
- After 10 days, on the waning moon, the dried heads are taken out into the field, burned and scattered on four sides.
The girls of England, France, Ukraine and Russia washed their faces with dew from clover flowers and rubbed their skin with juice to preserve youth and beauty. Modern women use the plant for the same purpose.
To rejuvenate and restore elasticity to the skin, mix a tablespoon of the transferred clover flowers with the same amount of kefir and a teaspoon of liquid honey. Apply to the neck and face. For fading skin, add a beaten egg to the mask. The composition is kept until dry.
You can eliminate redness with flower lotions. 3 tablespoons of chopped open buds are steamed with a little water. Gauze folded in several layers is soaked, applied for 20-30 minutes, like a lotion.
On a summer day, you can try an old recipe: collect dew from clover, put a few flower heads in it and leave to infuse. They wash themselves before going to bed.
Watch the video about clover flowers:
Clover is a vitamin supplement, home doctor, and meteorologist. The heads close before the rain. And you should definitely pick a flower in the morning dawn, dry it between the leaves of the book and put it under the insole of your child's shoe. It will definitely bring good luck.
