Welcome to Gardens for Everybody. We're here
with Danielle, our registered dietitian friend
and gardening colleague. What are we talking
about today, Danielle? So today we are talking
about the flavor foundation. Onions, garlic,
and scapes. Yes, they definitely enhance the
flavor of almost everything you're ever going
to cook. And I think. not besides being delicious
i think they're nutritious they are very so they're
not just for seasoning although this group definitely
helps to build up that rich and diverse flavor.
They're definitely nutrition powerhouses as well.
Onions in particular are known for their quercetin
which is an antioxidant with anti -inflammatory
and heart protective effects. They're also known
for being a prebiotic which helps to support
good gut bacteria. Remind me again. Yeah so in
a previous episode we talked about prebiotics.
These are different from probiotics and I often
tell my clients that prebiotics are like the
fertilizer the food for your gut bacteria that
are your probiotics so we can eat foods with
probiotics live active bacterial cultures but
we need to feed those as well that's the prebiotics
that we eat. Thank you. And onions definitely
have a significant amount of those prebiotic
components. Garlic, both garlic bulbs and the
greenscapes that grow from the bulbs are rich
in a compound called allicin, a compound with
again antibacterial and cardiovascular benefits.
Our own researchers at the University of Guelph
found that most of the allicin is created within
a few minutes of chopping. So there is some time
considerations when you're using fresh garlic.
You want to use garlic promptly after chopping
to take advantage of the developing allicin compounds.
However, if adding to an acid based, if for example
you're making a marinade or a salad dressing
that has a vinegar or a lemon juice component,
you might want to allow a brief amount of time
and probably the time that you transfer your
chopped garlic from your cutting board or your
garlic press into your mixture is plenty because
about 10 seconds or so is what you need for the
allicin to develop before adding it to all my
acid based i have been waiting a minute or two
or three oh crushing the garlic and then letting
it sit right to breathe and rest. And to grow
Alison. Yeah it happens actually pretty quickly
according to these researchers. So as you're
chopping away maybe a little bit of time. I don't
know that we need to go three minutes. 10 seconds
is pretty quick. Yes yes okay so I've got to
change that cooking habit. You can you can probably
be just that much more efficient in your cooking
without having to wait so long. Now are we saying
this it degrades if we wait too long or is it
just that you know so really because 10 seconds
that's just I'm just going to prep it and use
it yeah but is there a problem if I wait too
long maybe we don't know that that's a good question
I think it could be but definitely the what the
research I was reading was to make sure that
you do have that compound developed so right
in terms of the dynamics of it how long is it
before it's past its peak that's a really good
question but the important thing is chopping
it up and preparing it before just before using
it I guess yeah exactly Does cooking affect allicin?
As far as I know it does, so you may not have
as rich an allicin compound if you've burned
or over -brown it. So you know when you're preparing,
for example, building up a stir -fry in the wok
or if you're going to stir -fry leafy greens,
be gentle. So maybe it's one of the last ingredients
to go in the stir -fry. You would retain more
that way. Oh okay that's the opposite to how
I do it. Me too before I read this. Okay well
that's really interesting to know. What do you
like to do with scapes? I personally like to
saute them or barbecue them and treat them like
asparagus. But it's so important to cut off the
flower bud because it's far too tough for me
to chew. Well this is not my recipe but at Karp
Market a lady that makes a scape and feta cheese
dip. and I have to say that is the most delicious
thing I've ever had with scapes and I guess she
just blends them down with feta cheese and I
really shouldn't be stealing her recipe and using
it but that is so good. It's really delicious.
It sounds like a more grown -up version of sour
cream and chives. Absolutely, really really good.
So I couldn't decide on just one recipe for you
for your show notes today so I thought we could
link to the Garlic Growers of Ontario's recipe
collection. which gives our listeners a whole
host of recipes to choose from for exploring
garlic, onions and related. I love that you've
got Guelph University research and then we've
got the Garlic Grows of Ontario. That's keeping
it local. I love it. Thank you. You're welcome.
And I'll make sure to include that link in the
show notes. So that's wonderful. Thank you so
much Danielle and thanks everyone for listening
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