Where can you find nasturtium flowers, calorie content and composition. Useful properties and harm when used. Recipes for food and drinks. Interesting facts and the ability to grow in different climates. Flowers of nasturtium support a good mood not only due to the original piquant taste, which delights the receptors of the tongue, but also due to its healing properties. Introduction to the daily menu normalizes the functioning of the nervous system, which prevents the development of depression. In addition, women who inject inflorescences into cosmetics - masks, can boast of smooth, healthy skin.
Contraindications and harm of nasturtium flowers
Nasturtium flowers belong to sokogonny products: they stimulate the enzymatic activity of the stomach, gall bladder and pancreas, increasing the load on the digestive tract. Do not use this product for pancreatitis, stomach ulcers, erosive gastritis, chronic diarrhea.
The harm of nasturtium flowers to the cores is due to erucic acid, which is also contained in the composition. It disrupts the work of the heart muscle, increases the likelihood of heart attack and stroke.
You should not introduce bright petals into recipes:
- With stomatitis - irritation of the oral mucosa increases;
- With gallstone disease - so as not to provoke the release of stones into the bile ducts;
- With frequent heartburn, reflux disease may develop;
- During pregnancy and lactation - so as not to provoke the development of an allergic reaction. In the first case, in women due to the hypertrophic reaction of the body in a special condition, in the second - in infants.
There is no need to introduce the new taste to young children. The intestines of babies under 3 years old are not yet ready to meet a new product; there are not enough beneficial microorganisms in it for all nutrients to be fully absorbed. Too much risk - diarrhea may appear, which will become difficult to get rid of.
How nasturtium flowers are used in cooking
Chefs add bright inflorescences to salads raw, stuff them with various fillings, insist on them with various drinks and season sauces. They can diversify your own diet, improve your health and enjoy your meal - the rich colors of the petals are used to decorate dishes. The herbal product is added to minced meat and desserts.
You don't have to think about how nasturtium flowers are eaten. The inflorescences will add a new flavor to classic dishes - vinaigrette, pasta or summer salad.
In dietary nutrition, such an additive is invaluable: thanks to it, metabolic processes are accelerated, the fat layer dissolves.
Drinks with petals increase the tone of the body, help to cope with colds during the epidemic season and quench thirst.
Nasturtium flower recipes
Inflorescences can be added not only to summer recipes, but also to enjoy your favorite spicy-bitter-tart taste all year round. It is best to freeze the greens - all the beneficial properties will be preserved, and the petals will remain the same bright.
Recipes with nasturtium flowers:
- Spicy oil … The inflorescences are finely chopped, mixed with butter and lemon juice is added. The proportions of colors and oils do not matter. The main thing is to get a consistency that resembles a thick homogeneous dough in structure. Then small cue tablets are formed, frozen in the freezer. In the future, you can smear it on bread, add to mashed potatoes or porridge.
- Summer salad … 200 g of radish, 80 g of nasturtium flowers, a few feathers of green onions. Dressed with mayonnaise or olive oil with mustard powder. Another option: instead of radish - fresh cucumbers, additionally 1-2 hard-boiled eggs.
- Nut salad … Grate two fleshy tomatoes, finely chop a fresh cucumber. Salad dressing: grind 2 tablespoons of a mixture of nuts - walnuts and cashews, or pine nuts with hazelnuts, mix with honey and vegetable oil until pasty.
- Spicy seasoning … Mix the buds, crushed garlic and red currant puree in equal parts. Stored in the refrigerator, used as a sauce for fish and meat.
- Pickled buds … They choose unblown buds that are still green. They are washed and laid out in a single layer on a paper towel to remove excess moisture. The marinade is cooked: for 1 liter of water, a tablespoon of salt and sugar, 2 peas of allspice and cloves, 1 bay leaf. When the marinade boils, 3 tablespoons of wine vinegar 9% are poured into it. Jars are tightly filled with buds (you do not need to pre-sterilize), poured with hot marinade and immediately rolled up with a lid. In pickled form, nasturtium flowers are added to dishes - fish and meat.
- Stuffed tomatoes … Cut fresh meaty tomatoes in half and remove the middle. Put in equal amounts in a blender bowl: boiled beets, tomato core, pickled buds, green peas - you can fresh (sugar) or canned. Mix everything and add a little butter. Fill the tomatoes with the filling, grease with mayonnaise on top.
Nasturtium flower drink recipes
On the basis of inflorescences, you can prepare not only dishes, but also drinks. Popular recipes:
- Tea … The buds are torn off before they open, dried at room temperature in a ventilated room, spreading out in 1 layer. You don't have to turn it over. Then it is brewed with boiling water.
- Pouring … Dried buds are ground into powder and added to homemade berry liqueurs 3-4 days before possible tasting in a ratio of 1 tablespoon to 1 liter.
- Flower vinegar … Fresh inflorescences are used. 100 g of flowering buds are poured into 0.5 liters of licorice 9% vinegar, poured into a bottle 2 peas of allspice and black pepper, 1 clove, 1 crushed garlic tooth and half a shallot. Insist 12 days in a dark place at room temperature, then decant the liquid. Used as an addition to fatty meat and fish dishes.
- Toning cocktail … 40 g of horseradish root is grated, 100 g of shredded unopened buds are added, stir. Pour 2 liters of boiled cool water into a container that can be tightly closed with a lid, pour in a little more than half a glass of sugar. Filter after 12 hours. Keep refrigerated.
Interesting facts about nasturtium flowers
The name "Capuchin" was given to nasturtium in honor of the monks. In the Portuguese city of Sintro, a monastery of the Capuchin Order was founded, whose members wore hoods-hoods resembling nasturtium flowers.
But the botanical name of the plant "earned" due to the rich bright color of the petals. Karl Linnaeus gave the name Tropaeolum in honor of the triumphal columns on which the soldiers of Rome hung out the helmets of their enemies, stained with blood. The seeds of bright flowers were taken from America not by the conquistadors, like most spices and seasonings, but by merchants. Therefore, the plant came to Europe from India. There it gained immense popularity. Bright flowers have replaced the poor saffron - an indispensable ingredient of the national cuisine.
Large flowers of nasturtium, blooming on plants of tropical countries, are pollinated not by insects, but by hummingbirds. Their nectar is food for these brightly colored little birds.
During the flowering of nasturtium, any plants planted next to the flower garden are protected from cabbages, aphids, whiteflies and even Colorado beetles. They are frightened off by the pungent smell. Also, such a neighborhood protects against many diseases.
Claude Monet, a French artist, preferred bright colors - almost all of his personal plot was planted with nasturtiums.
Flowering begins in May and ends in late autumn. You can choose the varieties so that the flower bed delights the eye all this time. Most popular nasturtiums:
- Shield-bearing - with four-meter shoots, with red and yellow flowers, "Lucifer";
- Small - with short stems, no longer than 35 cm, red, orange, yellow, with highlights and stripes on the petals, "Black Velvet", "Cherry Rose";
- Thyroid - large dense leaves and stem up to 2.5 m, "Ladybug", "King Theodore";
- Liana (Canary) - liana with small multi-colored flowers.
Work on new varieties continues to this day. You can grow it on a personal plot, on a lawn, in a winter garden and on your own windowsill. The plant is so unpretentious that it is enough to provide stable watering for growth and flowering.
Watch a video about nasturtium flowers:
For those who want to surprise guests with a delicious dish, it is recommended to first plant the seeds in peat cups, and only then transfer them to a permanent place of growth - to a flower bed or flowerpot. This will help prevent root damage during transplanting and grow beautiful and tasty flowers quickly.
