Dave Parker
Whether bright yellow or dark green stripes: the zucchini is a popular vegetable and can be used in a variety of ways in the kitchen. Many valuable vitamins and minerals make zucchini healthy and ideal diet food. In rare cases, however, the vegetable can also be poisonous – everyone should know the warning signs.
In the kitchen, zucchini is multi-talent: it tastes rather neutral, but it adapts perfectly to a wide variety of ingredients. Zucchini tastes great in ratatouille and is sliced into fine strips in a raw vegetable salad, fried crispy out of the pan, or as a juicy zucchini cake. Zucchini can be used to make a tasty soup, stuffed with couscous, cheese, or rice, or cut spirally into spaghetti with a special slicer and enjoy with tomato sauce. But what makes zucchini so healthy?
Where can you buy zucchini?
Outdoor cultivation of vegetables in Germany is in season from June to October. It is also available in supermarkets and at the weekly market.
Zucchini is also a grateful vegetable for your garden. The small, immature specimens taste much better than the large fruit, which can reach the size of a pumpkin. At around 20 centimeters, the zucchini is tender and tastes slightly nutty.
Is zucchini suitable for a diet?
Zucchini contains a lot of water, and a few calories, and keeps you full for a long time – that’s why it’s a popular diet vegetable. Due to its low carbohydrate density, the pumpkin plant is very well suited for a low-carb diet, i.e. a low-carbohydrate diet.
When should a zucchini not be eaten?
In rare cases, however, zucchini can also be highly toxic: the reason is a substance called cucurbitacin. It can be found in cucurbits such as courgettes and cucumbers but has been bred out of the commercially available varieties. However, it may reappear due to reverse mutations – the danger is particularly great when home gardeners grow vegetables from their seeds every season. Cucurbitacin is heat stable and will not be destroyed by cooking. Cucurbitacin has a bitter taste in plants. If zucchini, cucumbers, or squash taste bitter, they should not be eaten.
Therefore, vegetables should not be deleted from the menu. Because their ingredients make the zucchini very healthy and it is usually well tolerated and can be consumed without hesitation.
