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Black carrot: ancient, useful, tasty

Noble carrots long ago known as an orange vegetable. Generations of people in our country and in the West grew, believing that this root was always orange. However, long before the orange, there was a black carrot, which grew throughout Asia and the eastern Mediterranean. Today it is still grown and consumed in Turkey, Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan and India.

Black carrots have hundreds of wild species and several cultivars. The Latin name of this plant is scorzonera. According to one version, the name comes from the name of the poisonous snake Scorcone, the poison of which, it was supposed, could be neutralized, using the juice of black carrots. Another version says that the plant received its name from the words scorza and nera ("black bark").

As for the usual orange carrots, it began to be cultivated not so long ago. They say that it owes its color to the small principality of Orange. A native of this principality, Wilhelm of Orange, contributed to the liberation of Holland from Spanish rule. Grateful Dutch farmers brought out a new vegetable dyed in the color of the ducal house - orange - and handed it to the descendants of the creator of independent Holland.

But back to the scorzonera. Black carrots have long been considered a curative plant, especially in eastern medicine. It has antibacterial properties, oil from the seeds of scorzoners promotes hair growth and eliminates itching of the scalp. Currently, the plant is also used as a natural dye. But first of all, specialists of traditional medicine recommend using carrots of this kind to combat such serious ailments as cancer and diabetes.

Black carrots contain substances that have the strongest antioxidant properties: the anthocyanins in it are capable of counteracting toxins that damage healthy cells during the course of chemotherapy. By the way, it is the anthocyanins that impart a characteristic color to the root crop.

Vegetables can be eaten raw, cook salads from it. Very tasty caramelized toasted black carrots. The photo shows how spectacularly it looks in one of the dishes of vegan cuisine, but the picture is not able to convey a magnificent fragrance, including notes of vanilla.

The concentrate of black carrot juice contains 12 times more antioxidants than the traditional concentrate of orange carrots. Despite the color, the vegetable contains 40% more beta-carotene than the orange fellow. In addition, the juice of black root vegetables contains vitamin A, selenium, potassium, calcium and iron. It improves the condition of the skin and hair, increases the production of sperm in men, is useful for digestion, cleanses the blood. Due to the presence of insulin it can be recommended for diabetics and obese people. As in 100 grams of juice of a black carrot contains only 20 calories.

When in 1996 Briton John Stolyarchik from Skipton created a virtual museum of carrots (World Carrot Museum), information about black carrots took him place of honor along with recipes that numbered almost 400 years.

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