Rare vegetable plants

In addition to the widely used vegetables in the world, we eat a lot of little-known and even completely unknown plants. In Asia, Africa, South and Central America, the family of pumpkin, , many of which are widely known in our country, are widely used. But there is among them an outlandish vegetable called a Vietnamese zucchini, or an Indian cucumber, lagenaria. Lagenariya is also called a pumpkin and a small bowl, and they make dishes, musical instruments, toys from it. In the same food are immature fruits of long-fruited varieties of lagenari, which resemble zucchini and are cooked according to similar recipes. In Southeast Asia, the fruits of lagenarii are used in a dried form, for example in Japan and China, it prepares delicate delicious noodles, which are stored in dried form. In Vietnam, Laos, China, Japan, Indonesia, a very popular plant of the family of pumpkin - Beninkas, is also called winter and wax pumpkin. Such a name this vegetable received for its amazing ability to be stored until the very spring without loss of quality, thanks to the thick wax coating on the peel. From the beninkasa prepare seasonings, soups, candied fruits, and young ovaries marinate.

In Central and South America, chayote, or Mexican cucumber is widely distributed. This amazing perennial climbing plant gives not only a plentiful harvest of zucchini-like fruits on its aerial part, but also a multitude of underground tubers that the plant forms for 2-3 years of vegetation. Aboveground fruits - zucchini - are not very large( no more than 20 cm in length), have a pleasant taste of tender pulp and are used in raw form for the preparation of salads and side dishes, and underground tubers are prepared as potatoes. In the countries of Southeast Asia, Africa and South America, a completely unknown plant is widely cultivated - the tri-chanter of the pumpkin family, for its bizarrely bent fruits called snake cucumber, the young fruits of which are used for food in fresh form. In India, trichozant is considered the main vegetable culture of the rainy season. In India, we also grow another plant of the pumpkin family that is unfamiliar to us - mo-mordika, or yellow cucumber. The plant received its second name for the bright yellow color of a mature tuberculate fruit, apparently resembling a cucumber. Immature fruits of Momordica are used for canning, they are salted and marinated, previously soaked in salt water to remove the inherent bitterness. In China and Japan, there is a strange shape of the eastern cucumber melon, the whose fruits contain very little sugar and therefore are used as a cucumber for pickling. In Central America, a completely unknown pumpkin plant grows - sicana, or fragrant cucumber. The plant is unusual in that it is something in between a tavern and a melon. Only young immature sycana fruits are used for food, since the mature fruit acquires a strong perfume scent, for which the sikana has its second name and is used for the aromatization of the dwelling. Cyclenter, or Peruvian cucumber, is also a popular vegetable plant in Central America. Numerous tender young shoots of cyclinters are used for food, like asparagus, slightly boiling, and fruits, reminiscent of a small cucumber, used to prepare acute national seasonings. On the islands of Central America, the is widely distributed as an anti-cucumber cucumber. This plant has very unusual small fruits, entirely covered with soft long outgrowths, like thin legs. The fruit of the cucumber of Antilles is salted and marinated, like ordinary cucumbers. In India, luffa is widely used as a vegetable crop, is more commonly known as a plant that gives a bath sponge. In food, young ovaries of luff are used, from which nutrient soups and various condiments are prepared, which are considered a delicacy. In Japan and China, since ancient times, various kinds of chrysanthemum family of astro, or composite, have been used as a vegetable. The food is mostly leaves, which quickly grow back on the plant after breaking off. They are very briefly blanched and then added to salads or served as an independent garnish. Less commonly, shoots, soft stems and even flowers are used in the same way. In South-East Asia, a plant such as stachis, or chist, called Chinese artichoke, is very much appreciated. The food is used by his tender nodules, which, like beads, grow on the roots of the plant. Commonly in the countries of Oceania, Japan and China, the herbaceous plant taro also forms on the roots tubers used in the boiled form for the preparation of many dishes. Chufa is also a tuberous plant of the sedge family and forms on its fine fibrous roots a large number of small tender nodules. The number of nodules on the roots of an average, well-developed plant can reach up to 1000 pieces. Nodules are very nutritious, buttery( oil content up to 40%), rich in starch, protein, sugar and taste like almond nuts. They are used for food in fresh and fried form and are used in the same way as nuts in the confectionery industry. Chufa is well known in Spain and Italy, where it is very popular. Another tuberous plant, widely cultivated in the countries of Southeast Asia, Africa and Australia, is yams. Its tubers, unlike chufy, reach truly huge sizes: up to 1 m in diameter and up to 50 kg of weight. Tubers are characterized by an increased content of starch and protein, are very nutritious and find a wide variety of uses.

In many countries of South-East Asia, plants very unusual for our understanding find use as vegetables.

So, some types of bamboo are very valued as vegetable plants, while young sprouts and bamboo buds used for fresh and canned salads are used for food. In the water plant lotus , rhizomes and fruits in the form of small nuts are used for food. In China and Japan, a lot of different dishes are prepared from lotus, including sweet ones - dessert dishes, compotes and kissels.