It is curious that some of such rare vegetable crops are quite used even in the northern latitudes, while they are very valuable and nutritious
He’s a green banana. The banana usual different from us differently as a zucchini from an apricot. They do not eat raw Platan – it requires heat treatment, and in stew or boiled form to taste almost indistinguishable from potatoes. It is curious that in the Spanish -speaking countries both bananas – sweet and unsweetened – are called one word – El plátano .
Plates are extinguished with meat, fried, served cut into slices, circles and even chips. Such dishes are very common not only in South America, but also in Southeast Asia, as well as in Africa, where these vegetables are called matte.
Hikama
This tropical plant belongs to the legumes family and is most often found in Mexico and other countries of Central America. Hikama gives weighty root crops with a thin yellow-brown skin. Her pulp is juicy, tender, crispy, in texture – something between a pear and potatoes. Hikama has a thin apple smell, but this is a vegetable. The upper part of the plant is inedible and even toxic.
At first, Hikama was grown only in America, but then fell into Southeast Asia, as well as to Nigeria, where it is cultivated very actively. Typically, root crops are eaten fresh: cleaned of the peel and consumed with spices, sugar, lemon juice. They are also boiled, baked and frying, pickled and dried.
Romanesko
You just look at what a marvelous “fractal” vegetable! Just don’t tear your eyes. Even small children will try such cabbage with pleasure, and what a wonderful composition she has – Romanesco is rich in vitamins and trace elements.
In Italy, this cabbage was known in the 16th century, but in international vegetable markets it appeared only at the end of the last century. In Italian cook books there are special recipes for Romanesco, but in the rest of the world it is prepared as ordinary broccoli. But still, in comparison with colored cabbage or broccoli, Romanesco is more delicate in texture and has a soft creamy-speaking taste.
Maniks
This nutritious culture is widespread in Africa and Latin America. Other names – Maniot, Kassava, Yucca. They eat root, the mass of which can reach a few kilograms. Moreover, the tubers are poisonous in raw form, as they contain cyanide, but after heat treatment they become suitable for nutrition and even useful.
A nourishing starchy cereal is made from the manion – tapioku, and alsoit into flour. For example, the Jamaican national pancakes are baked precisely from the manion. This culture is very productive and unpretentious, and due to high calorie content, it accounts for almost 37% of food consumed in Africa. More than half a billion people in developing countries survive due to the manioca.
Some indigenous southern American tribes make a low -alcohol drink from this root, and in a very specific way: the tubers are chewed, and then pour water and leave to wander. Human saliva contains enzymes that break down starch, and the drink acquires the taste and aroma that it relies.
Tarot
This vegetable grows in the tropics-in Africa and Southeast Asia-but is also widely used in Cypriot cuisine. Tubers with white, yellowish, cream or pinkish flesh, sometimes red or orange, have a light aroma and flavor of vanilla. There are a lot of varieties and varieties of the Tarot. It is interesting that this culture has long been known in the Asian regions, moreover, it was the main food product before rice.
It is known that both root crops and tarot leaves must be subjected to thoroughly heat treatment, otherwise there is a risk of poisoning. With fruits that they just do not do – and bake, and fried, and cook, and extinguish. Often supplied like potatoes with stewed onions, after frying in oil, or made of tubers flour, and then baked. In Japan, tarot in boiled form is served for holidays, especially for the New Year. Tarot is also used to prepare desserts, adding coconut cream to it or frying the fruit in coconut oil and watering sugar syrup.
Tea
He is a Mexican cucumber. This is a delicious and healthy starchy vegetable, the fruits of which are consumed both in cheese and in processed form. The homeland of Teaota is Latin America, and the main modern supplier is Costa Rica. Translated from the language of the Aztecs, the name of the vegetable means “pumpkin covered with spikes”.
Mexican cucumber has powerful shoots that reach 20 meters in length. Each plant gives up to a dozen root tubers, the mass of each of which reaches 10 kilograms. The tuber can be white, yellow or green. In the section, both cucumber and raw potatoes at the same time resemble. The pulp tastes juicy, sweetish. The whole plant goes to food – the leaves and shoots extinguish, the fruits are boiled, fried, baked, stuffed, added to soups and salads. They even eat seeds – they are frying, and they resemble nuts to taste. Due to the high content of starch, the Mexican cucumber may well replace potatoes, but generally goes well with any vegetables and even, oddly enough, fruits – for example, it is added to baking of apples.
Chontaduro
Chontaduro is not quite a vegetable, rather a palm fruit, the name of which can be translated into Russian as a “peach palm”. But to the taste of Chondaduro, the closest to vegetable crops – resembles either the battles, or potatoes, or corn resembles.
These fruits are almost not eaten raw, but dried, canned, they make flour and oil out of them, and most often they are simply boiled until cooked, and then they are cleaned from the peel and consumed flesh with salt, sauce, and sometimes with honey. In Latin America, Chontaduro is often traded from street carts, and not from the shelves of supermarkets.
Yam
You undoubtedly met the name of this vegetable culture in classical foreign literature, because it is used around the world. And again, we have a kind of substitute for familiar potatoes – large nutrient tubers, a lot of starch, sometimes a sweet taste. The root crops are fried, stew, cook, make flour out of ground pulp. Fruits with a light gray skin, very long and very delicate, they are even dug with caution.
By weight, some tubers can reach several tens of kilograms! All types of yams contain poison that disappears during heat treatment. In our latitudes, you can grow some varieties of Yams, but with great difficulty-the plant has a long growing season, and it simply does not ripen due to cold weather.
Sweet potato
Many confuse him with Yams, but these are different families. Batate – Liana with long creeping stems and very beautiful flowers. His tubers are much smaller, they are covered with reddish skin and always have a sweet taste. The pulp is a saturated orange color, it resembles both to taste both pumpkin and carrots.
Although the birthplace of the battles are considered to be Peru and Colombia, some desperate gardeners manage to grow it even in the Moscow and Leningrad regions, and quite successfully.
Oka
She is cusl cusl. It is cultivated in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Chile, where it successfully competes with potatoes. Contains a lot of starch and feels great in high -mountain regions. Its tubers are of stem origin and are covered with scales, have an acute aroma and crispy structure, and the color can be either yellowish or purple.
The root crops are boiled, fried and baked, like everything that resembles potatoes one way or another. Varieties are not only sour (due to the large amount of oxalic acid), but also sweet. Source is well stored in dried form – then it is again soaked in water and added to baking.
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