What I have thought to share with you is something about summer squashes. These include zucchini (also known as courgette), pattypan and marrows (particularly baby marrows) and are harvested during the growing season, while the skin is still soft and the fruit rather small; they are eaten almost immediately and require little to no cooking. In this day and age most of these summer squashes are available all year round in your supermarket.
In addition to the fruit, other parts of the plant are edible. Squash seeds can be eaten directly, which are ideal for your snack when you are on the run as recommended for hypoglycemia diets. They can also be ground into a paste, meal, “nut” butter, even a fine flour, or (particularly for hulless pumpkins) pressed for vegetable oil (e.g. bottle gourd, buffalo gourd, and pumpkin seed oils). The shoots, leaves, and tendrils can be eaten as greens. The blossoms are an important part of native American cooking, and are also used in many other parts of the world. With the modern trend of dressing up a dish, restaurants are now using them as part of their dishes for color and flavor. Both the male and female blossoms can be harvested pre- or mid-flower. So all in all this is an extremely versatile vegetable not to be overlooked.
The recipe “Baby Marrow with Almonds” is packed with all the good foods required when planning your hypoglycemia diets so watch our for my next post. This light tasty dish will make an excellent lunch or one of your vegetables to your main meal in the evening.
Acknowledgement to:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squash_%28plant%29 Picture courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/firephoto/5833370127/