Composition and calorie content of Batavia salad. What benefits does its use bring to the body? Can it be harmful. What dishes can be prepared using it. High content of macro- and microelements in the product:
- Potassium … Participates in the regulation of water balance, is responsible for the absorption of magnesium, conducts nerve impulses. The heart, kidneys, endocrine apparatus, and the brain suffer from a deficiency. The nervous and digestive systems, muscle tissue are not getting enough vital connections.
- Calcium … The strength of teeth and bones is the main task of this microelement. Helps blood clotting, blocks cramps, muscle spasms, prevents the absorption of cholesterol, activates the pituitary gland, pancreas and thyroid glands, adrenal glands. Without it, the condition of dental tissue worsens, caries progresses, bones break, osteoporosis develops, visual acuity decreases, and cataracts appear.
- Magnesium … It activates the production of enzymes and protein synthesis, reduces the excitation of nerve cells, relaxes the heart muscle. Deficiency symptoms: constipation, nervousness, seizures, migraine, arthritis, kidney stones, bladder stones.
- Phosphorus … The main task is to ensure the normal growth of dental and bone tissue. Normalizes protein and carbon metabolism. With a deficiency, a person feels weak, often suffers from colds, muscle pain.
- Sodium … Its main task is to correctly build water-salt metabolism, support neuromuscular activity, and normal kidney function. Carries sugar to cells, prevents overheating and sunstroke. Deficiency will affect appetite, stomach cramps, flatulence, frequent mood swings, tearfulness, and memory problems.
- Iron … It is generally known that its number one task is to participate in the production of hemoglobin. Without it, there is a decrease in immunity, rapid fatigue, mood changes, and disruption of the thyroid gland. The transmission of impulses to the brain, the production of connective tissue is impaired.
Useful properties of Batavia salad
A large amount of vitamins and microelements contained in the product has an impressive healing effect on the human body. This is the product about which we can safely say that you can eat it the more, the better. Forget the sense of proportion. If you like it, use it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The vitamin and microelement composition of Batavia salad with regular use will help to achieve the following health-improving effect:
- Boosting immunity, protecting against viruses … The high content of vitamin C activates the body's defense mechanisms during an epidemic of influenza and ARVI. It is especially important to eat salad in the off-season and in winter, thereby strengthening the immune system and creating a barrier on the way of viruses and disease-causing bacteria to your body.
- Lower cholesterol levels … Helps prevent the development of such dangerous ailments as atherosclerosis, stroke, heart attack. Also, due to the dissolution of cholesterol, blood vessels are strengthened, blood pressure normalizes, shortness of breath goes away, and the load on the heart muscle decreases.
- Improved neurological performance … Bad mood, apathy, lack of interest in life, insomnia, headaches, severe irritability and tearfulness are all symptoms that cannot be ignored. Often they say not that everything is bad in your life, but that you are susceptible to vitamin deficiency and a lack of micronutrients. Batavia salad will help solve these problems, normalize sleep, eliminate migraines, cheer you up, and make you more resistant to stress.
- Increased efficiency … We all know the feeling of weakness and exhaustion. It's one thing when it appears after an illness or strenuous exercise. It's quite different when you get enough sleep and walk in the fresh air, and still feel overwhelmed. This speaks of improper nutrition - a lack of nutrients in your food. This product is able to balance even a rather meager diet, eliminate dizziness, and give a charge of vivacity and vitality.
- Normalization of the digestive tract … The composition of the salad allows you to normalize the work of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract. This primarily concerns the proper functioning of the intestines. Half a meal should be vegetables, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner. And if they turn out to be Batavia, you will forever forget about constipation, diarrhea, dysbiosis, hemorrhoids and neoplasms.
- Prevention of anemia … The beneficial components contained in the product have a huge impact on the hematopoietic function. In particular, they help to normalize the production of hemoglobin, which prevents the development of such a dangerous disease as anemia.
- Changes in visual acuity … Certainly for the better. There is a decrease in the load on the optic nerve, blood vessels are strengthened, which leads to an improvement in visual acuity and is the prevention of glaucoma.
- Weight loss … Since the product has an extremely low calorie content, regular consumption of it helps to saturate the body with useful components, while not increasing the volume. And the normalization of metabolic processes and acceleration of metabolism will also help to reduce weight.
- Improving skin condition … This happens due to the removal of harmful substances from the body. Removal of toxins from the liver and normalization of the gastrointestinal tract immediately affects the condition of the skin - it becomes cleaner, blackheads, wen, blackheads disappear, the color becomes even, pigmentation disappears, fine wrinkles are smoothed.
- Strengthening hair and nails … In addition, the hair becomes thicker and the ends split less. This is especially important in the cold season, when the bulbs suffer under the influence of low temperatures. Shampoos, balms and masks cannot compete with proper nutrition, since vitamins and trace elements from products nourish the bulbs from the inside, making the hair strong. The same thing happens with nails. They stop exfoliating, become shiny, and grow faster.
Harm and contraindications to Batavia salad
The only contraindication is individual intolerance to the product. It is so useful that it can be safely eaten by children, pregnant women, nursing mothers, people with diseases of the heart, gastrointestinal tract, nervous system, immune disorders and many other ailments.
No matter how much we tried to find references to the dangers of Batavia salad, we failed. He is one of the most prominent representatives of the "squad" of healthy food. However, if you are prone to food allergies, we recommend starting with a small amount of the product. If, after consuming it, unpleasant sensations do not follow, feel free to include it in the main diet and eat it in any quantity, all year round.
How to eat Batavia salad
In cooking, this product is used very actively. As a rule, in a cold form, since during heat treatment it loses its attractiveness - the leaves curl and collapse. Therefore, if you nevertheless decide to use them in hot dishes, serve at the very end of cooking. It is often used in serving, being the basis for laying out sausage and cheese cuts, hot dishes, cold snacks. But mostly Batavia salad is eaten as an ingredient in salad mixes.
For them, they choose juicy, non-sticky leaves, without damage. Heads of cabbage weighing a little more than 200 g are considered optimal. Heavier ones may be overripe, have bitterness and have lost their tenderness. If the weight is lower, the leaves may be tasteless and too thin.
It is customary to tear them into dishes with your hands, then they will retain as many useful components as possible and will look more original. Served with chopped nuts, seasoned with vegetable oils, sour cream, mayonnaise and other sauces. Serving fresh salads during long feasts is very welcome, as they help to digest heavy foods better. They also help to cope with overeating, increasing the production of gastric juice, which is necessary for the digestion of excess feast.
Store the product in the refrigerator. The best place is a vegetable drawer. The advantage of this type is a longer shelf life compared to its relatives. It is about two weeks, provided that the temperature regime is + 2 + 5 ° C.
Batavia salad recipes
The leaves of this product can be safely called the king of cold snacks. We bring to your attention the most popular recipes with Batavia salad:
- Extravaganza of taste … This fresh appetizer can serve as a great snack, and in combination with meat it becomes a wonderful side dish. Take half a head of batavia salad, finely chop into pieces. To make the dish beautiful, take leaves of different colors. Fry a handful of walnuts in a pan for a few minutes, then chop them finely. Send to the leaves. Rinse 50 g of cherry tomatoes, pat dry with paper towels, cut into quarters and place in a salad bowl. Season all with 2 tablespoons of herbal-infused olive oil. Sprinkle 50 g of feta cheese or cheese cubes, crushed with a fork.
- Quick snack … You will need a few ripe tomatoes to prepare this light and tasty dish. Rinse them, wipe dry and cut into 1 cm high circles. Place on the batavia lettuce leaves. Rub 100 g of any hard cheese (it is better to take not neutral, but with a pronounced taste) on a coarse grater and combine with 1 clove of garlic passed through a press. Brush the tomato with unsweetened yogurt and top with a pile of cheese. Refrigerate and serve.
- With chicken liver … Despite the fact that the basis of the dish is vegetables, the liver will make it quite satisfying, while it remains fresh and light. Take two medium tomatoes and a cucumber each, one large bell pepper, and a bunch of Batavia lettuce. Cut the tomatoes into large slices, cucumbers - into cubes, pepper - into cubes, tear the salad. Marinate a large blue onion. To do this, cut it into half rings, pour over boiling water and add half a teaspoon of 9% vinegar, a pinch of salt and sugar, drain the marinade after 10 minutes, send the onion to the vegetables. Fry 150 g of peeled chicken liver with 1 large finely chopped onion, 1 clove of minced garlic, a pinch of salt and pepper over low heat with the addition of vegetable oil. Season the vegetables with vegetable oil, put on a plate, put the liver on top of the vegetable pillow - it can be hot, it can be chilled.
- Fish miracle … Best of all, this appetizer will go with boiled or baked potatoes. The dish is stacked in layers, each of which is greased with mayonnaise. Take a can of sardines canned in oil. Drain the liquid, put the fish on the bottom of the salad bowl, after kneading it with a fork. Top with 100 g of pickled mushrooms cut into slices. Then - a large green apple without peel and seeds, grated on a coarse grater. The next layer is finely diced tomatoes and bell peppers. Sprinkle the top of the lettuce generously with 50 g of finely torn batavia leaves. Let the dish soak in the sauce for an hour or an hour and a half, serve chilled slightly.
However, not only in salads this product will be appropriate, there are also some hot dishes to which it will give a special piquancy:
- Meatball soup … The classic meat for making meatballs is beef. Take 250 g of finely ground beef, add half a medium-sized onion, previously chopped in a blender, to it. Send a pinch of salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons of boiled chilled water there. Mix the minced meat well, and then beat off - this way excess air will come out of it, the meatballs stick better. To do this, take a handful of minced meat and throw it back into the bowl. So repeat 15-20 times. Then, using a teaspoon, slightly moisten your hands, form the meat balls. Toss them in 3 liters of boiling water, add 1 bay leaf, a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for 10-15 minutes in boiling water, skimming off the foam with a slotted spoon. Remove the balls, put 2 medium diced potatoes into the water, cook until half cooked. Then return the meatballs to the soup. Finely chop one large onion, grate 1 medium carrot on a coarse grater, save in vegetable oil and send to the soup. When the potatoes are ready, pour into bowls, sprinkle generously with finely torn batavia leaves on top.
- Juicy burger … Batavia salad will appear twice in this recipe. Immediately, we note that burger buns can be safely bought in the store, but it is better to make the cutlet yourself. Moreover, the minced meat for her should also be home-made. Take 300 g of beef and pass it through a large wire rack in a meat grinder. Do the same with half a medium-sized onion. Toss the onion and meat with a pinch of pepper. Form a cutlet, up to one and a half centimeters high and slightly larger in diameter than your roll. Season with salt on top and send to a hot skillet with vegetable oil. When a golden crust appears, turn it over. You only need to turn it over once. Prepare the sauce. To do this, grind 20 g of Batavia salad with 10 g of parsley, 1 teaspoon of American mustard and a pinch of sugar in a blender. Cut the bun into two parts so that the bottom is slightly smaller than the top, dry in a pan or in a sandwich maker, brush with sauce. Put a leaf of batavia lettuce on top, a cutlet on it, then a slice of toaster cheese, a couple of rings of red onion, another leaf of lettuce and cover with the second part of the bun, also greased with green sauce. Serve while the patty is hot.
Interesting facts about Batavia salad
Batavia may well be called a unique product, because it is the only salad that can be attributed to two types at the same time - both headed and leafy. And all because it has both leaves and a head of cabbage, which are suitable for human consumption. For such uniqueness, as well as for his cheerful curly-haired appearance, he is often called a jerk.
When breeding the culture, Russian and French breeders set a rather ambitious goal - to satisfy the needs of lovers of different types of salads, while making it quick and easy to cultivate. Scientists have succeeded. Batavia is now one of the most popular and demanded salads among connoisseurs of proper nutrition. And fast yield with minimal resource and labor costs allows it to occupy the middle price segment, which also be very attractive to buyers. Watch a video about Batavia salad:
Which type of salad to try - bright green or dark brown - is up to you. And we recommend trying several varieties at once. You will experience a wonderful healing effect, and the cheerful look of the salad will certainly cheer you up.