{"id":260,"date":"2015-02-13T11:52:43","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T11:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nikkimcarthur.com\/?p=260"},"modified":"2015-02-13T11:52:43","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T11:52:43","slug":"why-the-chayote-isnt-shite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amotherinfrance.com\/why-the-chayote-isnt-shite\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Chayote isn\u2019t Shite"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????\"<\/a>A few years back our French neighbour introduced us to the humble Chayote, a funny, knobbly, oval shaped, green vegetable (which I think is actually a fruit) with a tough, difficult to peel skin.\u00a0 It tastes of hmmm, well… nothing really.\u00a0 \u201cWhat do we do with it?\u201d, we asked, but were secretly thinking \u201cWhy on earth would we bother?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cC\u2019est bon, C\u2019est bon\u201d our neighbour assured us, \u201cGateaux de Chouchou, Gratin de Chouchou… beaucoup de choses\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cChayote cake?\u00a0 Really?\u201d\u00a0 We weren\u2019t convinced.<\/p>\n

Gary was curious to try, so he took the Chayotes , looked up a recipe on the internet and made \u201cGateaux de Chouchou\u201d, it was surprisingly good, considering it was made from an ugly green vegetable, but the preparation time of over an hour killed it for me.\u00a0 I was too busy to be messing about for hours cooking and peeling a vegetable (or fruit) which wasn\u2019t really worth all the effort.\u00a0 So we forgot all about the Chayote and filed it away in that \u201cOnce tried, never to be tried again\u201d folder in our cabinet of experiences.<\/p>\n

A few years later and our neighbour tried to convert us again.\u00a0 He\u2019d had a bumper crop or maybe he\u2019d just got fed up with peeling them and didn\u2019t want his efforts of growing them to go to waste, so he persuaded us to take another basket full.<\/p>\n

Gary made another Chouchou Gateaux,<\/a> we tried it on some friends and they liked it. We even managed to get the thumbs up from a non vegetable eater (or maybe he was just being polite).\u00a0 A good way perhaps, to get some vegetables into the diet of a reluctant vegetable eater? \u00a0Then I tried making Gratin de Chouchou<\/a>, which was really good.\u00a0 I boiled the Chayotes with their skins on and peeled them after they were cooked and cooled (which was much easier than peeling them raw) chopped them up and mixed them with a white sauce with onions, garlic and bacon, topped with cheese. \u00a0That went down really well.\u00a0 I\u2019ve made lots of courgette gratins in my time and this is not dissimilar, but the Chayote flesh stays firmer which, in my opinion, is much better.<\/p>\n

I then thought I\u2019d look up a little more information on the Chayote to see what benefits would make it worth the effort of preparing and cooking it and was surprised by what I found.<\/p>\n

The Chayote (also known by various names including Merliton, Christophene and chouchou) is a member of the squash family and is often referred to as the \u201cvegetable pear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The immediate practical advantages of the Chayote is that it ripens in Autumn and its tough skin means it can be kept over winter supplying a very useful\u00a0 source of vegetables (and therefore vitamins) at a time when there is little to be had from the garden.\u00a0 It\u2019s also very easy to grow, so I\u2019m told, is grown from seed and is a climber.\u00a0 In addition according to an article on Healthmad.com<\/a> it has the following health benefits:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Good for the heart (Folate \u2013 23% DV)<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. May prevent cancer (Vitamin C \u2013 13%)<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Energizes the body (Manganese \u2013 9%)<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Keeps thyroid healthy (Copper \u2013 6%)<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Helps prevent acne (Zinc \u2013 5%)<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Prevents bone loss (Vitamin K)<\/strong><\/li>\n
  7. Eases tired and heavy legs\u00a0(Potassium \u2013 4%)<\/strong><\/li>\n
  8. Good for the brain (Vitamin B6 \u2013 4%)<\/strong><\/li>\n
  9. Put leg cramps in check (Magnesium \u2013 3%)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So, that\u2019s why the Chayote isn\u2019t Shite.\u00a0 Far from it, it\u2019s actually Shuper (sorry), \u201cSuper\u201d as it\u2019s easy to grow, excellent for storing over winter, has lots of health benefits, oh and it tastes OK too!<\/p>\n

    Nutrient data source:<\/em>\u00a0USDA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A few years back our French neighbour introduced us to the humble Chayote, a funny, knobbly, oval shaped, green vegetable (which I think is actually a fruit) with a tough, difficult to peel skin.\u00a0 It…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12],"tags":[21],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amotherinfrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amotherinfrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amotherinfrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amotherinfrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amotherinfrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amotherinfrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amotherinfrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amotherinfrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amotherinfrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amotherinfrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}