What is radichio salad, calorie content, composition and useful properties. Can everyone introduce a new product into the diet. Escariola recipes and interesting facts about it, the possibility of growing. Thanks to such a number of nutrients, the salad not only diversifies the diet, but also provides an opportunity to improve your health.
Useful properties of Italian chicory
Escariole tastes bitter, so you can't eat a lot of it. To eliminate the bitterness, cooks heat the product. Because of this, the beneficial properties of radichio salad are not completely preserved.
Beneficial effect on the body:
- Improves the work of the cardiovascular system, eliminates vascular spasms, maintains a stable blood flow rate.
- Normalizes heart contractions, increases oxygen supply to organic tissues.
- Prevents the development of age-related changes, improves the quality of the skin, normalizes the production of sebum.
- Increases immunity, reduces the possibility of getting sick during the season of epidemics.
- Reduces blood sugar levels. Stimulation of digestive enzymes promotes the complete absorption of nutrients, and a high amount of dietary fiber accelerates peristalsis. The intestines are freed, toxins are excreted, the liver is quickly cleansed, the life cycle of hepatocytes is lengthened.
- Has a calming effect, helps to recover from emotional stress and intense mental activity.
- Reduces cholesterol levels, cleanses blood vessels, improves peripheral blood supply.
- Prevents the development of anemia, stabilizes the production of red blood cells - erythrocytes.
- Normalizes water and electrolyte balance, helps maintain skin tone during weight loss diets.
- Reduces the symptoms of painful attacks in malaria.
It is recommended to regularly include escariol in the daily menu during pregnancy - it contains a lot of folic acid, which is necessary for the formation of the fetal nervous system, and it is also useful for problems with the hematopoietic system.
Contraindications and harm of radichio salad
As with all unfamiliar foods, escariol should be introduced with caution in children's diets. Before three years, it is not worth preparing new dishes, especially since the bitter taste can "scare" the baby and cause problems with food.
The harm from radichio salad is manifested only when overeating: the acidity of gastric juice increases, hiccups and heartburn appear. If not abused, there will be no side effects from the use. It is not necessary to introduce dishes with escariol in the diet for pancreatitis and a tendency to diarrhea. The increased load on the digestive organs significantly worsens the general condition.
Should be avoided in case of individual intolerance. Allergy symptoms increase gradually: intestinal colic, diarrhea, nausea, headache, rashes around the mouth. If, after "acquaintance" with the product, at least one of the mentioned signs appears, it is better to refuse escariol.
How to eat escariole salad
Escariola varieties differ among themselves not only in the color of the leaves and the shape of the fork, but also in taste. Even knowing the variety, it is impossible to accurately predict how pronounced individual taste qualities are - they depend on the time of cutting.
Therefore, before preparing the radichio salad, you should chew the leaf. If the bitterness is pronounced, and the leaf is dense and juicy, the veins are tough, then such a “head of cabbage” is not suitable for a salad. But it can be added as an ingredient in risotto, a side dish for stews, grilled or fried in a pan.
The rag of large forks is used instead of dishes when presenting gourmet dishes. Delicate leaves of radichio are introduced into salads, lighter, with a small amount of veins.
Italian chicory recipes
Escariol is combined with walnuts, caraway seeds, garlic, onions. It is recommended to use sour sauces as a salad dressing - citrus fruits, mayonnaise, soy sauce.
Radichio salad recipes:
- Warm salad … Put 200 g of pumpkin, cut into identical cubes, into a brazier, pour over 3 tablespoons of olive oil and add a small piece of melted butter. Allow to stand to mix and absorb the oils. Then sprinkle the pumpkin with thyme and rosemary, add some salt, add a salad mixture of roots and radichio, only 100 g. Preheat the oven to 180 ° C and put the roasting pan there for 15 minutes. Then the salad is transferred to plates and seasoned with wine vinegar and Dijon mustard. Serve warm.
- Carpaccio … The turkey fillet is peeled, cut into large pieces, and oblique cuts are made in them. Rub with sea salt, sprinkle with paprika and thyme, add ground ginger (rub fresh root), pour olive oil and soy sauce. Leave to marinate at room temperature, covered with a lid. After 40 minutes, the meat is brought to readiness in a double boiler. 3 minutes before turning off, pour the salad mixture into the bowl - radichio, arugula and corn. Sprinkle the finished dish with chopped parmesan, season with lemon juice. Garnish with cherry tomatoes when serving.
- Venetian meat salad … 40 g of bacon or any ham streaked with fat, cut into small cubes. Onion, 1 pc., Chopped. Each radichio leaf is cut into 4 pieces. Heat a frying pan, pour homemade olive oil with an intense smell on it, begin to fry the onions. Add 1-2 cloves of crushed garlic, add salad and simmer for 5 minutes over low heat, constantly turning over. Pour everything into a salad bowl, add spices to taste, it is advisable to limit yourself to a mixture of peppers. Serve hot, cover the dish with a lid. When cold, the interesting spicy taste is lost, and the leaves become soft and tasteless.
- Cheese salad … They begin to prepare the salad with the marinade. Mix 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and 3 orange juice, pour in a spoonful of olive oil, add half a teaspoon of fresh grated ginger root, pepper and salt to taste. Let it brew for 30 minutes in a sealed container. 150-200 g of delicious mushroom cheese is cut into cubes. Sweet oranges, 2 pieces, peeled, divided into slices, films removed. The forks are disassembled, the purple dense leaves of the radichio are cut into thin strips, and fried in sunflower oil. Celery stalks, 3 pieces, cut into thin rings, chop the red onion, 4 garlic cloves are passed through a press. Fry 2 teaspoons of sesame seeds in a dry frying pan. All ingredients are mixed, salad is seasoned and sesame seeds are sprinkled on top.
- Seafood salad … The eggplant is cut into rings, and the Bulgarian red or yellow pepper is cut into strips. The peppers are first fried on the grill, and the eggplant is allowed to stand salted to remove the bitterness. Then it is also fried on the grill on both sides. Peel 8 large scallops, add salt and pepper, sprinkle with lemon juice. Marinated for 15 minutes, and then sent to the grill. Roast each side for 1 minute. Radichio leaves are also fried on the grill, 40 g, then cut lengthwise, and tomatoes - 2 pieces in circles. Better to choose fleshy tomatoes. Dressing: 1, 5 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 teaspoon each - balsamic vinegar, honey and lemon juice, crushed garlic clove and half a teaspoon of Provencal herbs. Serve the salad warm.
- Paste … Break the spaghetti in half and cook as instructed. You do not need to drain all the water, leave a little in the pan. Next, they are engaged in dressing for the dish: they mix a quarter of a glass of beet juice, 2 tablespoons of wine (apple cider) vinegar, half a tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper generously. Set aside to brew. Fry a shredded red onion, 3 chopped garlic prongs, half grated beets in olive oil. When the onion becomes soft, pour pasta into the pan along with a little water, half of the chopped salad fork, mix everything. Turn off when the water is completely evaporated, mix with dressing. If there is not enough salt and pepper, add.
Interesting facts about radichio salad
If escariola seeds germinate outside the garden, it is unlikely that a person unfamiliar with the agricultural crop will recognize him. The leaves will be brown or even green, and the head of cabbage will not form. The purple-violet color appears due to the peculiarities of growing - without access to sunlight. Farmers completely cover the plant from the sun's rays, artificially illuminate it with lamps, specially arrange temperature drops and even freeze it.
After the seedlings are stretched out in the dark, the plant is transferred to open ground, in shaded places, covering from the sun on clear days. It is convenient to use cut and painted plastic bottles for this.
The most popular radichio varieties:
- Radicchio di Chioggia. Violet dense heads of cabbage with small leaves are grown all year round, the most "simple" conditions of reproduction.
- Radicchio variegato di Castelfranco. This is a seasonal vegetable and can be purchased from December to the end of March. In the middle of the fork there are small leaves, the rasp is wide, large. The leaves are delicate, light, pink, with purple veins.
- Radicchio di Treviso rosso tardivo. Very similar in appearance to the original variety - food chicory. The forks are loose, pronounced bitterness. Winter variety.
- Radicchio di Treviso rosso precoce. It also resembles chicory in appearance and taste, elongated leaves are collected in a dense rosette. The color is red or burgundy, the veins are white. The transition from white at the base of the leaf to purple in the middle is quite sharp.
The size of the fork is small - from a large grapefruit to a small melon. If the salad is not cut off in time, then the head of cabbage breaks up, the central part transforms into a stem, and flowering begins. The leaves become bitter and no longer suitable for food.
To obtain seeds, the plant is left in the sunlight in an open bed. The blue flowers of the escariola are pollinated by bees.
Watch a video about radichio salad:
Radicio is often sold in the supermarket, but there is no rush to acquire it. And those who bought it make a salad from the leaves of "red cabbage" and are disappointed because of the bitterness. You can only appreciate the new taste after you get to know escariol better. This is not "red cabbage" - this is a type of salad.
