Lindy Valdez
The zucchini is a relatively young vegetable that only started to make a name for itself in central and northern Europe in the 1970s. But where do the healthy fruits actually come from and what is the best way to prepare them? What is their nutritional value, which varieties are there, and what do you have to pay attention to when growing them? Read all about the delicious vegetable, which we call zucchetti in Switzerland.
The zucchini is a squash
From a purely visual point of view, zucchini (zucchetti in Switzerland) look similar to cucumbers. Both are actually related and belong to the pumpkin family. However, the ancient cucumber originally came from India, where it was cultivated around 1500 BC. was domesticated. The ancestors of the zucchini, namely the pumpkins, were eaten with love in Central America 10,000 years ago.
Although zucchini and squash don’t have much in common in terms of appearance and taste, the zucchini is a subspecies of the garden squash (Cucurbita pepo) domesticated in Mexico and the southern United States. There are no wild zucchini, only cultivated forms.
The history of the origin of zucchini
In order for the traditional pumpkin to become a zucchini, it had to travel to Italy in the luggage of seafarers at the beginning of the 16th century. Once there, he immediately became a favorite of growers, resulting in fruit of all shapes, sizes, and colors.
However, the very first zucchini only saw the light of day in the 19th century near Milan. For a long time, the new vegetable was therefore referred to as the “green Italian pumpkin”.
The meaning of the word “zucchini”
The name of the zucchini also reveals that it is a true Italian. Because “Zucca” means “pumpkin” in Italian and “zucchini” is nothing more than “little pumpkin”. People outside of Italy probably liked the term “zucchini” so much that they didn’t even bother to invent their own names. This is how the delicious vegetable is still called zucchini in many countries around the world, such as Germany, Austria, and the USA.
An exception is German-speaking Switzerland, where Zucchetti is mentioned, which is why we use this term more often in this article. In France, the Netherlands, and Great Britain, the zucchini is called Courgette, derived from Cucurbita, the Latin generic name of the pumpkin. The Spaniards speak of Calabacín, which also means little pumpkin because the pumpkin is a calabaza.
Is the zucchini male or female?
In German-speaking countries, you can say der or die Zucchini, in the plural nothing changes. This is based on the oddity that the Italians couldn’t decide whether the courgettes were male or female either. Some speak of la zucchini or in the plural of le zucchini (the courgettes or the courgettes), others of lo zucchini or in the plural of I zucchini (the courgettes or the courgettes). Both are correct! Nobody knows today why this is so. Maybe it’s because zucchini plants develop both female and male flowers.
How to pronounce the word zucchini correctly
In terms of pronunciation, there is often helplessness in German-speaking countries, so that zucchini quickly become “zutschini” or “zuchini”. The Italian “cch” is correctly pronounced like “kk”, i.e. “Zukkini” and accordingly “Zukketti” in Switzerland.
Unripe zucchini taste best
Zucchini plants look very similar to squash plants. However, squash plants have rounded leaves and zucchini plants have jagged leaves. The flowers are of an imposing nature and beautifully colored yellow. They are a specialty in Mediterranean cuisine and can be used e.g. B. grilled, stuffed, roasted, or fried.
The fruits that develop from the flowers are not only green and elongated, they can also be white, yellow, or multicolored and round (ball zucchini). It’s hard to believe, but botanically they are berries. Also, courgettes are usually harvested in immature rather than ripe. They then have a length of 10 to 20 cm, weigh between 100 and 300 g, and then taste particularly tender.
But if you let the fruit continue to grow and ripen, true monster zucchini emerge: the skin becomes harder and harder, the tissue becomes lignified, the pits develop, the fruit resembles a pumpkin more and more and can weigh up to 5 kg. Ripe courgettes may not be as delicate as their young counterparts, but they can still be eaten. However, like most pumpkins, they have to be peeled and the seeds removed. Ripe courgettes are best braised, as the long cooking time will make them more tender.
The history of zucchini
In the Mediterranean countries, zucchini took people’s hearts by storm. Countless traditional recipes tell of this, and zucchini can boast of the leading role. These are often simple, inexpensive dishes. This is due to the fact that courgettes have long been a typical vegetable of poorer classes. Because she was easy to grow and offered amazing yields. The well-to-do in Italy called them disrespectfully “the pig of the poor” (because they couldn’t afford meat, only courgettes).
Italian emigrants finally brought the relative of the pumpkin to the USA around 1920 and thus back to its origins. There, the vegetables – probably in combination with the traditional Mediterranean dishes – found the recognition they deserved. However, it was not until the 1970s that courgettes were cultivated in Central Europe.
In Germany, zucchini is still a vegetable that is often scorned, as according to some top chefs it should not taste like anything at all (an indication of the fact that many people’s taste buds have apparently become insensitive – perhaps due to the excessive use of salt, flavor enhancers and hot spices). Jokes like “By the way, courgettes taste best when you throw them away and order pizza,” point to the supposedly bland taste. The good reasons for not doing this will now be explained in detail.
The nutritional value of zucchini
Zucchini is low in calories and also low in nutrients due to its high water content, which is typical of vegetables. The following values refer to 100 grams of raw courgettes:
- 19 calories (79.5 kJ)
- 93.9 grams of water
- 0.4 grams of fat
- 1.6 grams of protein
- 2.1 g carbohydrates (of which 1.6 g sugars: 0.6 g glucose and 0.7 g fructose)
- 1.1 g fiber (0.2 g water-soluble and 0.8 g water-insoluble fiber)
The calories of zucchini
With 19 kcal (79.5 kJ), calorie counting makes no sense at all for zucchini. The vegetables are therefore a pure blessing for everyone, including overweight people and type 2 diabetics, but of course, they should not be prepared with a lot of cream or other sources of fat.
The glycemic load of zucchini
Due to the low-calorie content of zucchini, there is actually no need to calculate the glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL). For the sake of completeness, we don’t want to withhold the values from you: The GI is 15 (values up to 55 are considered low) and the GL is 0.3 per 100 g of fresh zucchini (values up to 10 are considered low).
Foods that have such a low GI or GL offer the great advantage that the blood sugar level hardly rises after eating and you feel full and balanced. Not only overweight people and type 2 diabetics benefit from this, but practically everyone.
Zucchini is an ideal low-carb food
Since zucchini is one of the foods with the lowest carbohydrate content, it is welcome in any low-carb diet, which is why there are now countless recipes with zoodles. Zoodles are courgettes that are made into noodles with a spiral cutter and can be combined with all kinds of sauces instead of pasta.
Even if it sounds unusual at first, zoodle dishes taste fantastic. Of course, instead of real pasta dishes, they are very low in calories, very well tolerated, and leave you with a wonderfully light feeling. Zoodles don’t even need to be cooked and can be eaten raw. But mostly they are blanched. You can read more about Zoodles below under “Zoodles: zucchini instead of pasta”.
Courgettes for fructose intolerance
Zucchetti contains hardly any fructose, namely 0.7 g per 100 g of vegetables. In addition, the fructose-glucose ratio is balanced, which further improves tolerability. Zucchini is therefore really an ideal food for people who suffer from fructose intolerance.
The vitamins of zucchini
While the vitamin content of zucchini isn’t staggering, it can certainly contribute to meeting your daily needs, especially since you can eat a lot of it. If e.g. Eating a vegetable with 300 g zucchini, for example, covers more than 50 percent of your beta-carotene and 48 percent of vitamin C requirements. (The official requirement for vitamin C is stated to be very low at 100 mg. Be sure to consume more vitamin C!)
In our vitamin table, you can find all the values per 100 g of fresh courgettes. The first value is the content in the zucchini, the second value is the share of this value in the daily requirement and the third value is the daily requirement of an adult:
- Vitamin A Retinol Equivalent 58 µg 6% 900 µg
- Beta carotene 350 mcg 18% 2,000 mcg
- Vitamin B1 Thiamine 70 µg 6% 1,100 µg
- Vitamin B2 Riboflavin 90 µg 8% 1,200 µg
- Vitamin B3 Niacin 400mcg 3% 15,000mcg
- Vitamin B5 Pantothenic Acid 80 µg 1% 6,000 µg
- Vitamin B6 Pyridoxine 89 µg 4% 2,000 µg
- Vitamin B7 Biotin 2mcg 2% 100mcg
- Vitamin B9 folic acid equivalent 10 µg 2.5% 400 µg
- Vitamin C Ascorbic Acid 16 mg 16% 100 mg
- Vitamin E tocopherol equivalent 500 µg 3.6% 14,000 µg
- Vitamin K Phylloquinone 5 µg 7.1% 70 µg
Vitamins that are not listed (vitamin B12, vitamin D) are also not included.
The healing power of courgettes
According to researchers from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences in Poland, the consumption of vegetables and fruits is one of the most important prevention strategies against obesity and a number of diseases such as type 1 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. They stated that some studies have now shown that cucurbits like zucchini have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and anti-cancer properties.
So it is not surprising that cucurbits have not only been eaten for thousands of years but also used for their medicinal value. According to a study conducted in 2020, cucurbits generally have a positive impact on health. In addition to those already mentioned, zucchini, cucumber, and the like also have antidiabetic and laxative properties and can be helpful for stomach and intestinal disorders, diseases of the lower urinary tract, inflammation, and diabetes.
In addition to vitamin C, phytochemicals such as phenolic compounds (primarily flavonoids), carotenoids (e.g. beta-carotene and lutein) and the green pigments called chlorophyll to play a crucial role. Because these substances are not as secondary as was once thought. On the one hand, they help the plants to survive, on the other hand, they are largely responsible for the health-promoting effects of fruit and vegetables. Most researchers now agree that phytochemicals help maintain health as well as reduce the risk of disease.
Immature zucchini are the healthiest
With regard to zucchini, it is interesting in this regard that – compared to most types of fruit and vegetables – they can be eaten unripe and then taste best. And the younger it is the fewer carbohydrates and the more health-promoting ingredients such as fiber, protein, and phytochemicals it contains. For example, For example, the proportion of carbohydrates increases by around 20 percent during the ripening process.
What you need to know about bitter substances in cucurbits
From time to time, horror stories about poisonous zucchini appear in the media around the world. The so-called killer zucchini contain cucurbitacins, i.e. bitter substances that have a toxic effect. These can occur in all cucurbits, including pumpkins, melons, and cucumbers. Symptoms include gastrointestinal problems such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. In exceptional cases, the poisoning is so severe that it leads to death.
But you don’t have to be afraid to eat zucchini and co. Because according to a German study conducted in 2020, acute food poisoning with cucurbitacin-containing pumpkin plants is extremely rare. Actually, the bitter substances have been specifically bred out of the fruits so that they are completely free of them.
In rare cases, however, due to various factors such as environmental stress (e.g. heat and temperature fluctuations) or incorrect storage, the bitter substances can still be formed.
In most cases, the poisonous zucchini does not come from the trade, but from the home garden – especially if you use your own seeds and you have also planted non-edible ornamental gourds in the garden near the plant. In this case, both can cross and the toxic bitter substances (cucurbitacins) get from the ornamental gourds into the courgettes.
So if you have courgettes in your own garden and want to use the seeds from them next year, it is best to plant them far away from the ornamental gourds or leave out the ornamental gourds altogether.
If you do happen to catch a poisonous zucchini, don’t worry. You can recognize the affected fruits by their bitter taste. They taste so bitter that you will automatically spit out the bite immediately. Even cooking does not destroy bitter substances. In this case, do not think that these are valuable and healthy bitter substances, but dispose of the vegetables completely.
Children like zucchini with herbs butter
Is it important to you that your children eat healthily? But do the little ones like almost everything but vegetables? This phenomenon is widespread and is called food neophobia (fear of new foods). This behavior is most pronounced between the ages of 2 and 4 years.
A Dutch study involved 250 children in daycare. For 5 months they were offered vegetables that they knew little or nothing about and prepared differently: blanched pumpkin and pumpkin spread, blanched zucchini and zucchini soup, raw white radish and radish spread.
While acceptance of squash and radish increased significantly through repeated eating, zucchini continued to be spurned. The researchers stated that this can be attributed to the mild taste of the vegetables. An attempt should therefore be made to serve children zucchini seasoned with delicious herbs such as rosemary or thyme.
In addition, the flavor can be teased out of the squash by roasting, frying, or grilling it. Because the so-called Maillard reaction (browning reaction) produces toasted substances that taste very tempting. In the chapter after the next, you will find out why courgettes with roasted ingredients are healthy compared to, for example, roasted potatoes.
Fried zucchini is also healthy
It has been proven that foods with a low glycemic load, such as zucchini, counteract cardiovascular diseases. But what if it’s fried? Actually, one would think that cooking in oil would have a negative effect on health compared to cooking in water due to the increased fat content. For example, it promotes obesity and types 2 diabetes. According to Italian researchers, however, this should not be the case.
The study enrolled 12 obese, insulin-resistant subjects and 5 lean subjects. They all got two different meals:
- Meal A: 60g of wheat flour pasta and 150g of grilled courgettes with 25g of extra virgin olive oil, but added to the vegetables after grilling.
- Meal B: 150g fried courgettes (in 15g extra virgin olive oil) and 60g fried pasta (in 10g extra virgin olive oil)
In overweight women, the values (C-peptide, insulin) were significantly higher after meal A than after meal B. No difference was found in the lean subjects. The scientists concluded that obese, insulin-resistant women are better off frying or deep-frying the vegetables in extra-virgin olive oil.
A study at the University of Granada came to the same conclusion. The decisive factor is that cooking in olive oil increases the content of secondary plant substances (phenolic compounds) in food and consequently the antioxidant power.
What should be considered when grilling, deep-frying, and roasting zucchini
It is crucial that a heat-stable oil is used, as the smoke point is then high and no harmful substances are produced. Virgin olive oil is B. up to 180 ° C heat stable and is therefore well suited for cooking at high temperatures.
Of course, the zucchini should not be charred, but gilded. Incidentally, the carcinogenic acrylamide is only formed when carbohydrate-rich or very starchy foods such as potato and grain products are heated to high temperatures.
When grilling, you should make sure that the courgettes are brushed sparingly with oil. It is important that no fat gets into the embers. In this way, the formation of tumor-promoting polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) can be avoided.
Zucchini chips for autistic kids
Autistic children often show abnormal tactile, taste, and olfactory sensitivity to foods. In 2020, researchers from Hong Kong examined whether fruits and vegetables are more likely to be eaten when their appearance, texture, and temperature are changed. The four-week study took place in schools and involved 56 autistic children.
In the 1st and 4th week, the food was offered in its original form, in the 2nd and 3rd week in a different form: Bananas became banana ice cream, zucchini and sweet potatoes became chips, apples and kiwis became popsicles and carrots carrot juice. The children were able to get used to the modified form of food, so they preferred to eat zucchini chips rather than vegetables in their pure form.
Now one could argue that it is nothing special that children would rather eat banana ice cream than a banana. After the intervention, however, something astonishing was discovered: the little ones then ate the fruit and vegetables in their original form better than before. The bananas performed best, the carrots worst.
The researchers stated that the change in food provides an impetus that can improve the disturbed sensory system and, as a result, the acceptance of fruit and vegetables.
Zucchini is grown here
The pumpkin plant is grown worldwide, the largest European producers are Italy and Spain. But there are also local zucchini from German-speaking countries. In Germany z. For example, more than 40,000 tons are harvested per year, with Rhineland-Palatinate leading the way.
When are zucchini in season?
Regional zucchini can be bought between July and October. In order to be able to enjoy them all year round, they are mainly imported from Spain, as well as from Morocco and Italy, which ensures supply between October and July.
Incidentally, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are among those countries where the desire for green vegetables seems to be increasing every year. In Switzerland, for example, 26,000 tons of vegetables were eaten in 2016, compared to 15,000 tons in 2000.
Conventionally grown zucchini usually contain pesticides
Fruit vegetables from conventional cultivation, including e.g. B. aubergine, cucumber, peppers, and zucchini, mostly contain pesticide residues. In 2020, the chemical and veterinary investigation office in Stuttgart examined 44 zucchini samples and found that 41 of them (i.e. 93 percent) contained pesticide residues. Multiple residues were found in 31 of these samples.
In 2 zucchetti samples, the content was even above the legally permitted maximum level. Among them was the world’s best-selling and most controversial herbicide, glyphosate. It can already be detected in the urine of over 70 percent of people in Germany. Although the International Agency for Research on Cancer ( IARC ) classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” in 2015, the substance was again approved for use in the EU until December 15, 2022.
It is to be hoped that by this date the interests of the industry will, for once, take a back seat and that the protection of people, animals, and the environment will be considered instead.
