Summer vegetables

Summer vegetables and greens .

Summer is here and the party has started! With the high temperatures, the beach outings and the desire for vacations, also come the gazpachos, the salads and with it the vegetables and seasonal vegetables .

Eating seasonal vegetables and fruits is essential for the nutrients and minerals that seasonal foods provide you since they are at their optimum time for consumption, but in addition to that, their price is always much cheaper than when they are out of season.

Take note because in yummy recipes we want you to eat the best and the best in all seasons of the year, so here are some of the vegetables that will accompany you this summer.

Advantages of summer vegetables

Eating seasonal vegetables is a must for our diet and our daily lives. It is good for your health, your pocket and the environment or ecosystem.

In summer we need foods that contain more water, richer in beta-carotenes to protect the skin, such as tomato or zucchini. The local vegetable is collected at its optimum ripening point and is tastier than the one to be transported, which is harvested green and will ripen artificially in the containers.

Lettuce

Lettuce has its best season in late spring and early summer. When you want to buy a lettuce, you have to choose the seasonal varieties, because we have lettuce on the market from spring to late summer . These will be tastier and more nutritious than those grown in the greenhouse.

• It is preferable to select specimens that have a bright green color, a tone that in most varieties ranges from deep green to light green. If you are going to buy an iceberg or romaine lettuce , it is advisable to choose those that have tender but firm leaves. If other varieties of lettuce are preferred, their leaves will have to be softer, but not withered.
• The lettuce to be purchased must not have burnt leaf tips or brown edges. Although the discoloration of the outer leaves of the lettuce does not affect its quality, it is preferable to discard those specimens with a very marked discoloration because it is a sign that it is deteriorated.
• For a while now, everything has been said about lettuce and not always good things. That if it gives gases that if it does not know anything. Yes, it is true that lettuce may be indigestible at certain times, but it is a light, fresh food with a large component of water and almost no calories. It has a high content of potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and trace elements.
• It is also rich in vitamin A, B and C . And last but not least , it is rich in lactucarium , a substance that acts as a pain reliever on the nervous system, providing relaxing properties that promote sleep. Lettuce lowers blood sugar and is rich in beta-carotene , which helps alleviate the effects of colon or lung cancer.
• The perfect time for consumption begins in spring and lasts throughout the summer. We know that lettuce is the base of any salad , sandwich or sandwich , but you can also eat it sautéed, boiled or even in an omelette.

Arugula

• Another teacher of salads, arugula, enjoys its best moment with high temperatures, although as you know we can find it every day in the super market. It is very difficult to find arugula out of plastic, that is, fresh in greengrocers, but it is not impossible.
• The arugula provides very few calories and has a very special and different flavor than that of lettuce, lamb’s lettuce or spinach. It provides us with antioxidants, magnesium and has a great contribution of calcium.
• You can find it in a lot of gourmet dishes, such as hamburgers or beef carpaccio , for example. I love putting it on pizza because it gives it a very fresh touch.

Zucchini

Ratatouille, zucchini in pesto or zucchini cream are some of the multitude of recipes that we can cook with this succulent and versatile vegetable .

• Its season is summer, without a doubt. Although like so many other vegetables, we can find it at any time of the year.
• Because of its texture, with zucchini we can countless dishes, stuffed zucchini and lately we can also find zucchini noodles in the vegetable section of the supermarket.
• Zucchini is known for its antioxidant properties and its high water content (95% ). It also contains almost no calories and provides magnesium, trace elements, calcium, vitamin C, B3, cellulose and omega 3 , which helps us reduce cholesterol. .

Radish

That you care about a radish is a shame, because the truth is that the radish is a healthy, nutritious tuber that we cannot enjoy all year.

• It is believed that its exact origin was in ancient China, reaching today most of the planet in different varieties. They are attributed diuretic properties and say that it also aids digestion or can be consumed as an expectorant.
• Like zucchini, it has a very low caloric content and provides us with phosphorus, vitamin B and iron.
• Radish has a very characteristic flavor due to the presence of mustard oil in the tuber.
• We can find it in raw salads but we can also consume it fried or boiled.

Tomato

It’s a fruit? It’s a vegetable? It is a plane? No, seriously, the tomato is not a vegetable, it is a fruit , since it contains the seeds of the plant that generates it.

This confusion comes from the 19th century, even reaching the US Supreme Court, where a law was passed that assigned taxes to vegetables, but not to fruits. Is this the strategy by which we consider tomato a fruit and not a vegetable?

• Who knows, what we do know is that the tomato is one of the stars of the summer. Gazpacho, salmorejo, salad, soup , bloody Mary . I daresay there is nothing as refreshing as tomato in the summer season. Not even an ice cream!
• Tomato has many benefits for our health . Taking it out of season is a shame, a waste of money and time, since what will happen to you most of the time is that you find tomatoes without tomato flavor.
• Tomato has 22 kilocalories, 0.1 grams of fat (that is, nothing), vitamin A, vitamin B6, C and E, a very low carbohydrate index (3.5 grams), 95% water, zinc , sodium, potassium and phosphorous. There is nothing.
• For all these nutrients, tomato is a natural remedy against aging, it favors good vision and improves circulation, facilitates intestinal transit and prevents fluid retention.

Potato

Smile, pa-ta-ta, the potato is very sensitive to frost, so its ideal seasonality begins in spring and lasts until summer.

Potatoes are the enemies of weight loss diets because of their high carbohydrate content, but you do not have to be so radical, you just have to eat it at the right time. Yes, it is true that of all the vegetables that I have mentioned, the potato is the one that has the highest caloric intake, but not everything is so bad.

Its benefits are plenty. For example, they are made up of 75% water and are a great source of potassium. They are rich in vitamin C and vitamin B, folic acid and minerals such as iron or magnesium.

Potato is also a very versatile food. You can eat them in stews, mashed, roasted as a side dish and fresh dishes like salad , the seasoned potatoes, the potatoes to the oven or of course make a delicious omelette . Posts to “put on weight” …

In summary…

After all this I wish you a happy summer eating the best of the season and taking your lunch box to the beach loaded with delicious and delicious seasonal products.

Happy summer!