The Thistle is considered a Mediterranean vegetable , however it is highly appreciated in all European corners since it maintains an exotic delicacy profile and you can use it perfectly either as a delicious and nutritious food or medicinally to help solve many ailments. This name is common for many varieties of plants of the “Compositae” family of composites and is generally associated with Christmas and winter, although you can perfectly get it all year round. Let’s see below the different ways to eat it and cook it based on your personal needs.
How you can eat or cook thistles
Either as food or as medicine , the thistle needs certain rules established during its adaptation or cooking process to be consumed, look at the correct way to do it and take advantage of everything that this legendary, nutritious and healing vegetable can offer you.
Choosing, cleaning, cooking and preserving the thistle
Thistle is one of those vegetables that refuse to die and that maintains a very low compatibility with today’s cuisine since it takes a certain time for its correct preparation. For those who do know its value, it is an exceptional vegetable with a lot of nutritional and medicinal value and is well worth the investment of time it requires.
Choose the small thistles, they are more tender and tasty
Keep in mind that it is much more feasible to buy 2 small thistles than 1 large one, why? Because the smaller ones are simply much tastier. These require at least 1 hour to cook, but you have to be very careful because these leaves inside (the heart) are much softer and it is possible that they can be over boiled.
Cleaning as a prelude to cooking the thistle
Cleaning consists of removing the external areas of the stalks as well as all the annoying threads or filaments that the stems have. This action is carried out from the top down trying to eliminate the fibrous part in a very similar way as if they were peeled. Once all this process is finished, the leaves should be cut into pieces of about 4 or 5 cm in length and submerged in a mixture of cold water with lemon to avoid their oxidation and keep in mind that if you do not use gloves your hands will stain brown and turn bitter to taste.
The cooking time of thistle and how to optimally freeze it
After cleaning it and cutting it into pieces, this vegetable accepts to be frozen , but you must proceed to blanch it for at least 5 minutes in boiling water.
For cooking it is important to note that it is a long process and takes at least 1 hour in normal pots, with some variations depending on the hardness of the water, but with margins that maintain maximum times of +/- 15 minutes.
Experts recommend boiling it with 1 tablespoon of flour to maintain an attractive color and to achieve maximum attenuation of its bitter taste . For those who cannot get it in its fresh state, there are canned cardoons made in an industrialized way where they can effectively function as an excellent alternative for consumption.
Thistle as an infusion thanks to similarin
Thistle seeds are perfect as a medicinal supplement because they contain excellent active substances for our health and one of the most important is silymarin . Able to effectively protect your liver just like cucumber and carrot protect your kidneys. This silymarin achieves its regeneration and they are perfect infusions to be used in people who go through processes to combat problems of toxin intoxication or alcoholism .
To prepare these infusions, the seeds are crushed (5 grams of it for each cup of water) and you can consume up to 3 cups per day. It is important that you can review this information with a medical specialist to avoid any type of interaction with any medication you are taking and thus avoid additional problems.
