Tag: Vegetable

Cucumber: from aromatic water to tzatziki, a vegetable with a thousand benefits – Italian Cuisine

Perfect for fighting dehydration and exhaustion, cucumber helps us on hot summer days. It helps our body because it is rich in mineral salts such as potassium, calcium, phosphorus and sodium, and it is also rich in vitamin C. And then it gives a special flavor to dishes

The cucumber is one of the main summer vegetables. With its taste to the tasteless appearance, it manages to give a touch of freshness to any recipe. And, be careful, if you believe it is good only for salads you are wrong: very versatile, it is suitable for enticing palates even in sauces and flavored waters. And then it is a mine of mineral salts and vitamins, precious for fighting exhaustion and dehydration, typical summer conditions.
Below are some ideas for using cucumber in the kitchen, recipes tested by La Cucina Italiana. In our gallery, instead, a deepening on the thousand benefits of this vegetable that must never be missing in the refrigerator.

The benefits of cucumber

Cucumber was already known since ancient times for its beneficial properties for health and beauty. Composed for almost all water, it contains very few calories (only 13 kcal per 100 grams!). Rich in mineral salts, such as potassium, calcium, phosphorus and sodium, it is also rich in vitamin C, protector of the immune system. Do you know why cucumber is recommended by many dieticians in slimming diets? For the presence of tartaric acid, able to prevent carbohydrates taken during a meal from turning into fat. Cucumber also has renowned purifying properties: for this reason it is advisable to add it to water, not only to flavor it, but also to make it more detoxifying. Can't digest it? The solution is: put it in salt for half an hour, cut into rounds. Then after rinsing it, it is ready for use.

Tzatziki sauce

Cucumber is one of the main ingredients of the Tzatziki sauce, typical condiment of Greek cuisine. Here's how to do it: after peeling a cucumber, grate it. Meanwhile, finely chop the garlic. To the two ingredients, add the yogurt and stir, until a homogeneous mixture is obtained. Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and chopped dill, to give that extra touch of freshness. Serve with toasted bread or as a condiment for fish or meat.

Cucumber flavored water

As is known, in summer it is essential to drink at least two liters of water. Don't you often have the urge to thirst? Aromatize the water as follows: in a jug filled with mineral water, add a lemon or a lime cut into slices and half a cucumber, always cut into slices, but keeping the peel. To give an extra twist, also add a small piece of ginger root. Here is your purifying and energizing water.

Roll with cucumber and avocado

Have you ever tried your hand at preparing a hosomaki Japanese (small rice rolls with black seaweed outside)? These are vegetarians, filled with avocado and cucumber. First, cook the rice with 700 g of water: once boiled, let it rest with the lid lined with a cloth. Peel the daikon and cut it into sticks 20 cm long. Do the same with cucumbers and avocado, cut into slices. Spread the rice on a tray, season with 5 g of salt, 2 teaspoons of brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar. Now spread a nori seaweed on a cloth, then stuffed with a layer of rice, a daikon stick, one of cucumber and 3-4 slices of avocado, rolled tightly helping yourself with the cloth until obtaining a loaf to be cut in thick rounds 3-4 cm.

Cucumber and goat cheese rolls

Do you want an original idea, to read fresh, to bring to the table as an appetizer? Prepare some rolls of cucumber and goat cheese. Here's how: cut the cucumbers into thin slices lengthwise and boil them. Meanwhile, work the goat cheese in a bowl, adding chives and mint. Stuff the cucumber slices with a tablespoon of cream and wrap the roll. Season with an oil-based emulsion, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Cucumber, feta and watermelon salad

Cucumber is the king of salads summer. Here is an alternative and very refreshing, which also uses watermelon, to give a sweeter note. Peel the cucumbers and cut them into cubes, do the same for the watermelon, taking care to remove the seeds. Also cut the feta into cubes and add the three ingredients in a bowl, seasoning them with an emulsion of oil, salt and pepper.

Incoming search terms:

https://gordon-ramsay-recipe com/recipes-of-italian-cuisine/cucumber-from-aromatic-water-to-tzatziki-a-vegetable-with-a-thousand-benefits-italian-cuisine html

All crazy about vegetable milk, king of Hollywood stars' breakfast – Italian Cuisine

From Madonna to Salma Hayek, through Blake Lively and supermodel Elle MacPherson: here is the army of divas who have decided to convert to almond milk, coconut, soy & co

Almond, soy, rice, coconut: le vegetable alternatives to the milk vaccine are now an integral part of the daily lives of many people, as is also underlined by the recent study conducted by the observatory Isola Bio Lab on breakfast trends. On the other hand, the fascination of these beverages, with their intense flavor and at the same time their exceptional nutritional properties, is absolutely undeniable. The well known also Hollywood stars, which from the top of their social profiles followed by millions and millions of devoted followers increasingly promote these products as an integral part of a healthy diet. And a camera-proof diet.

Exceptional testimonial

For example, among the celebrities who have made vegetable milk a lifestyle, we find the actress Blake Lively, founder of the portal dedicated to wellness and lifestyle Preserve: the now former Serena van der Woodsen in the Goddip Girl series said she followed a diet with a very low dairy content, where however she inevitably figures the coconut milk. And it is not the only one: also Madonna, Demi Moore and Matthew McConaughey have shown themselves to be fans of this drink over the years; as well as the top model Elle MacPherson, nicknamed "The Body", the body, always very careful to follow a balanced and more than healthy diet. He candidly confessed his personal obsession with the almond milkinstead, the irrepressible Mexican actress Salma Hayek: apparently this product would be among its very personal secrets for having a radiant skin.

The expert's opinion

Yes, but beyond Hollywood fashions, what are the real benefits that these plant-based drinks can bring to our diet? The answer is the nutritionist biologist Annalisa Olivotti: «Today we tend to introduce these products based on soya, rice, almond, oats and coconut, instead of the normal milk. Based on their energy intake and calorie and fat content -, the expert explains – my advice is to alternate between the different drinks, and to consider the best ones for your needs on a case by case basis. Almond milk, for example, can represent a good supply of calcium, vitamins and antioxidants. Rice milk, on the other hand, is a food poor in proteins, but traditionally considered refreshing and rebalancing for the gastrointestinal tract. Soy milk has a good balance between sugar and protein and has a low glycemic index . In short, it seems to be fundamental to learn to read the labels correctly of the various products, to guarantee our body a correct supply of all the necessary substances. To reiterate this, in this case, is the volume All types of vegetable milk, written in collaboration with Luigi Mondo and Stefania Del Principe, who in addition to illustrating the different characteristics of these products also suggests how to use them in the kitchen, with special recipes ranging from the first to dessert.

China: a healthy future based on vegetable proteins – Italian Cuisine

To combat obesity, China aims to reduce meat consumption by promoting new alternative, healthy and vegetable foods, to be integrated into the diet by 2030

When we talk about obesity in the world, our thoughts go immediately to the United States and the American people, notoriously dominated by a diet rich in fat and junk food that is not very balanced. No coincidence that it is the country with the most obese adults in the world, as many as 79 million. Few know, however, that on the front ofchildhood obesity America actually wins second place while the former goes unexpectedly China, a country that in the Western imagination is often associated with a light and low calorie diet. Consider that instead the obese Chinese children are 15 million and that by 2015, the estimated obese adults were 57 million.
The Chinese government has recently decided to take serious measures regarding the food sector to stem this worrying growth, and not only that. In particular, in collaboration with China's first food technology accelerator Bits x Bites, which is investing in various international startups, has issued dietary guidelines that aim to reduce national meat consumption by 50% by 2030 and the introduction of innovative, sustainable and healthy food alternatives. The trigger of this initiative is not really only childhood obesity, but also all the problems concerning the Chinese meat industry.
In addition to the problems of food security (animal diseases) and health problems (antibiotics and hormones) linked to the industrial production of meat, there are fears that there are not enough arable land to feed the growing population or enough land to house the farms.
Let's go then to find out what the alternative protein sources will be for a healthier future.

Alternatives to soy

Although soy milk, in China as in other countries, is one of the most famous and popular vegetable drinks, in the last few years interesting alternatives are taking hold. Among the many China has decided to invest in pea milk, already widespread and appreciated in the United States, the mung bean one and the chickpea one.

Silkworm snacks

For years we have been talking about the importance of insects as a precious source of protein and with a low environmental impact as an alternative to meat. In China, an insect-loving country known forbreeding of silkworms (about 500 thousand tons a year), the government has decided to invest in a company that turns flour silkworm scraps into powder into flour, to then process this flour and produce salty snacks. This snacks, which will contain about 20% of proteins, will soon be launched on the market and already bets on its commercial success.

Synthetic meat, produced in the laboratory

The synthetic meat produced by in vitro cultivation from animal cells has become a worldwide trend, above all thanks to Beyond Meat, the American company of the famous Impossible Burger. China has decided to follow in its footsteps and invest in an Israeli company called Future Meat Technologies that produces precisely meat grown in the laboratory, non-GMO, naturally free of hormones and antibiotics and produced using a fermentation silo. The goal is to see a food product based on cellular meat to be launched on the market as soon as possible.

A bowl of a salad bowl to drink

A final investment concerns a company called Fruggie, which intends to promote a new concept of "drinkable" salad. The reason behind the development of this product, which for us Westerners may appear to be bizarre, is that the Chinese mostly love hot and cooked foods, while they are rather reluctant to eat raw vegetables and, indeed, salads. The company has therefore decided to mix together ten classic ingredients, including lettuce, avocado and chickpeas, reducing them to drink. This drink is currently only available in some parts of China.

Photo: synthetic china meat diet sana_Wikipedia_World Economic Forum.png
Photo: alternative soy milk peas in Cina_Pixabay_falovelykids.jpg
Photo: silkworm silkworms vegetable proteins cina_Pixabay.jpg