If you grow zucchini yourself, you know the phenomenon of the zucchinian chemme: within a few days, more fruits are approached than you know how to process. How can you avoid this? What should you consider when growing zucchini? And how can you cook varied and healthy with zucchini?
Zucchini is particularly known from Mediterranean dishes with herbs and tomato, for example ratatouille. In fact, the pumpkin family originally comes from southern Europe. The name comes from Italian and means “little pumpkin”. In the meantime, however, zucchini are used very diverse and are an integral part of international cuisine.
In Germany, in addition to the ordinary green zucchini, there are also yellow and white striped varieties to buy and plant it yourself. Another variant: round instead of elongated zucchini, which are particularly suitable for filling. The “Black Forest” variety is characterized by its climbing joy and can grow up to two meters up on tuning scaffolding. It is therefore suitable for cultivation on the balcony. Mildew-resistant varieties are also recommended. Otherwise, this fungus disease can quickly end the harvest.
How do you build zucchini?
Zucchini plants are robust and easy to care for and therefore ideal for beginners in vegetable cultivation. As early as April, the plants can be preferred in the house and put on the field in May after the ice saints. Sow and plant the seedlings best with a time interval of two weeks. In this way, they prevent all fruits from becoming ripe at the same time. Two to three plants per household are usually sufficient.
A sunny, wind -protected location and a deep, nutrient -rich soil are important. For example, the zucchini feels comfortable in the garden bed next to peas or rod beans. At the same place, however, zucchini and other pumpkin plants should not be attached in consecutive years: to avoid diseases and protect the soil, an extension break of four years should be observed for zucchini. Radies and salads are suitable as intermediate cultures.
Up beds are also ideal for zucchini plants. If you want to cultivate the vegetables on the balcony, you should use large pots and set at least two plants to support the fertilization of the flowers. Since zucchini wear both male and female flowers, you can help with the lack of fruit set: Simply cut off a male flower, remove petals and thus dust the scar of the female flower.
After around two months, the first fruits are ripe for the harvest. You shouldn’t wait too long: young zucchini taste particularly tender and aromatic. To harvest, cut the fruit directly behind the stem. This encourages the plant to train more fruits. The best way to use freshly harvested zucchini is immediately. But they can also be stored in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator for a week.
Zucchini – also suitable for diabetes
Zucchini consist of over 90 percent of water and are low in calories. This makes you ideal for everyone who wants to pay attention to your weight or want to support the fluid balance. The vegetables also contain important vitamins such as vitamin C, various B vitamins, potassium and magnesium as well as many fiber that promote digestion. Since zucchini contain very few carbohydrates, they are also well suited for people with (pregnancy) diabetes.
When consuming zucchini, however, caution is advised: tastes of the vegetables unusually bitter if it is not eaten. Because the taste comes from toxic cucurbitacines. These bitter substances were bred away in the common cultural varieties. If you increase seeds yourself, but you can reappear and cause gastrointestinal problems after consumption. In Heidenheim there was even a death in 2015 after a man ate very bitter zucchini from his own cultivation. The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment recommends trying a small piece of raw before preparation and prefers to dispose of the zucchini in the event of a strong bitter taste.
Healthy recipes with zucchini
For a refreshing Zucchinis salad Cut the vegetables into thin stripes with a peeler. Put them with mint, roasted pine nuts and feta in a bowl. Season the salad with the juice of a lemon, some olive oil, salt and freshly ground pepper. The salad tastes best if you let it pull it before eating.
For Pad Thai with zucchinipasta You need a spiral cutter. Cut a zucchini and a carrot into fine “pasta”. For the sauce, mix two tablespoons of peanutism, a tablespoon soy sauce, a teaspoon of lime juice, a teaspoon of rice vinegar, some maple syrup, grated garlic, grated ginger and a little water until a creamy consistency is created. Then fry the vegetable noodles briefly in a pan with coconut oil and add the peanut sauce. Serve the dish with chopped peanuts, spring onions and fresh coriander.
Filled zucchini Is a good dish if you get a visit. To do this, cut one or two round zucchini up at the top and scrape out the pulp with a spoon. Then roast minced meat. Then add onions, garlic, tomato paste, herbs, salt, pepper and the solved zucchini meat into the pan. Fill the pre -cooked mass into the zucchini, put on the “lid” and bake the filled balls in a baking dish with a little tomato sauce for about 30 minutes at 180 degrees.
This recipe is ideal if you need some variety of zucchini, but your plant continues to produce fruits: just harvest them Zucchini flowers. Then carefully remove the stamens and fry the flowers in oil. Then fill them with cream cheese, herbs, salt and pepper.
An unusual but very tasteful recipe with zucchini is for one Chocolate cake. The vegetables make the sweet food particularly juicy without it tasting it out. Fine about 300 grams of raw zucchini and express the excess liquid slightly. Mix 200 grams of flour in a bowl, 50 grams of cocoa powder, 150 grams of sugar, a package baking powder and a pinch of salt. Mix 100 milliliters of oil and three eggs in a second bowl. Give the dry ingredients and the zucchini to the egg mixture and stir everything well. If you like, pick up chocolate pieces. Fill the dough into a greased shape and bake the cake at 180 degrees upper/bottom heat for about 50 minutes. After cooling, you can decorate the cake with powdered sugar.
