Are you looking for a way to protect yourself from disease and improve your immune system? Try the pumpkin. The large amount of vitamin A that the fruit provides helps your body fight infections, viruses, and infectious diseases. Pumpkin oil even helps fight various infections caused by bacteria and fungi. Plus, pumpkin has nearly 20 percent of the recommended daily allowance for vitamin C, which may help you recover from colds more quickly.
Younger skin
Sure, eating pumpkins might help you look younger (the beta-carotene in squash protects us from the sun’s UV rays that cause wrinkles), but the pulp also makes a great all-natural face mask that exfoliates and softens. All you need is a quarter cup of pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie), an egg, a tablespoon of honey, and a tablespoon of milk. Mix the ingredients, apply them, wait about 20 minutes and wash with warm water.
Lower risk of cancer
Beta-carotene is suitable for your eyes and skin, but do you know what other benefits it has? Fight cancer. Research shows that people who eat a diet high in beta-carotene may have a lower risk of certain types of cancer, including prostate cancer and lung cancer.
Vitamins A and C are “a kind of defense squad for cells,” says Kaufman. Both are antioxidants, and they act as shields for your cells against cancer-causing free radicals. “
In scientific experiments, pumpkin has been shown to lower blood glucose levels, improve glucose tolerance, and increase the body’s amount of insulin. Other tests need to be done before we can say the benefits of pumpkin for people with diabetes, but if you have diabetes, eating pumpkin certainly won’t hurt.
Many dishes can be made with this ingredient. We share a delicious recipe to show you the versatility of this vegetable in the kitchen.
Zucchini stuffed with meat and vegetables
Ingredients
One medium onion.
Three sweet bite peppers or half-normal red.
Four moon or elongated gourds.
1/2 of minced meat (of your preference).
Four tablespoons of homemade or commercial tomato sauce without sugar.
Six tablespoons of tomato sauce.
Salt.
Extra virgin olive oil.
Black pepper.
It grated mozzarella cheese.Elaboration
Chop the onion well and fry in a frying pan with a drizzle of oil.
Add the finely chopped peppers.
Add the meat and continue with the sauce.
Pour into the raw squash and add the pulp to the pan.
Continue cooking and add the salt and spices.
Put the pumpkins on a plate and cover them.
Please put them in the microwave on high power for 8 minutes or until they are tender.
In the pan, add the tomato and the sauce, continue cooking until everything is well integrated. Let it cool.
Fill the zucchini and top it with the grated cheese.
Gratin in the oven.Cooking and preserving squash
Pumpkin is the cinderella of vegetables: humble but brilliant in its passage through the kitchen … and it is that countless recipes can be made with a pumpkin full of flavor, aroma, and color.
It is used in many culinary preparations: in cream, soups, broths, purees, baked, boiled, sautéed, sautéed, gratin, to color a stew or as a garnish for meat, in a cake or flan, on pizza, as a filling for ravioli or cannelloni, or as a garnish for rice pilaf, a legume or a pasta.
It is also used to prepare jams, syrups, or marmalades. The angel hair with which sweets and cakes are filled is made with the confectionery variety.
But the cooked pulp of the pumpkin is also the main ingredient in cakes, pastries, and puddings.
How to cook pumpkin
Before using the pumpkin, it should be cleaned with a damp cloth. To cook it, there are several options:
It can be roasted in the oven, cut in half and without seeds, and then empty the pulp, crush it and use it in creams, soups, or purees.
Sliced ​​and baked with honey and spices, it offers a delicious and easy-to-prepare sweet recipe.
Or it can be chopped up and cleaned of skin, seeds, and fiber before steaming or boiling.
It is not advisable to cook the pumpkin in excess, about 20 minutes; thus, its flavor and nutrients are preserved.The spices and aromatic plants are suitable for sweet and savory preparations: cinnamon, vanilla, star anise, cardamom, cumin, ginger, thyme, oregano, rosemary, fennel, coriander, chives, basil, pepper … Curry is also used with success, especially in the takeover.
The orange, either its skin or the juice, gives it an acid touch. And the soy sauce is perfect for seasoning it: by cutting the pulp into large cubes and marinating it in a soy sauce dressing with aromatic plants, garlic, and anchovies, an exotic and delicious pumpkin is obtained a starter or garnish for a salmon, seitan or chicken.
Buying and storing pumpkin
To choose a good autumn squash, you should look at the skin. If it is smooth and refined, it may be a little green.
The best are those with thick but intact skin, a peduncle, and high weight concerning their size. That way, they will last for several months, although it is always better to consume them just right.
To preserve them, the ideal is a cool and dry place. Once split, they will last at least a week in the fridge, covered with film, covering the skin, or stored in a perforated bag
Pumpkin is the berry fruit of the squash and belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family, which comprises more than 850 species of plants. This food has many health benefits, and it is one of the best sources of beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant found in orange fruits and vegetables. The body converts any beta-carotene ingested into vitamin A, foods that contain this antioxidant have multiple benefits. That is why in a nutritious diet you can not miss the pumpkin, since it can help reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer, exerts protection against asthma and heart disease, reduces the risk of age-related macular degeneration, decreases the risk of obesity, helps prevent diabetes and heart disease among others.
