Healthy properties of sage and recipes for delicious dishes

Healthy properties of sage and recipes for delicious dishes

Sage is a fragrant spice with pronounced taste qualities. It has a tart, subtle aroma. Fresh gray-green leaves have a spicy-astringent bitter taste.
Sage is used in cooking and medicine. Healthy properties of sage and recipes for delicious dishes.

Who often use spice, it is necessary to know what a healthy sage is:

Tincture from the leaves of the plant can relieve inflammation in the throat and mouth, and tea cleanses the liver well.
The juice contains essential oils with antibacterial and hemostatic properties.
Infusions and compresses from it treat wounds, burns, and skin diseases.
In addition, the plant is rich in vitamins B1, P, C, phosphoric acid, and tannins.
Herbal decoction is rinsed with problematic or gray hair, as a result, their color improves, dandruff disappears, and fat content decreases.
Sage is valued for its bactericidal and astringent properties, for its ability to tone blood vessels.

But most importantly, sage is an excellent antioxidant!
Sage leaves rich in essential oils, flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins, and resinous substances are endowed with medicinal properties. They also contain vitamins C, E, P, PP, and phytoncides, and mineral salts of iron and zinc.

(1) – “Salvia species may represent a natural, safe, and effective treatment for many diseases and their symptoms. In recent decades, with the increase in pharmacological knowledge about the beneficial effects of sage, especially S. officinalis, these herbal medicines with antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, free radical scavenging, and antitumor activities have been found to be very effective in the development of novel natural drugs to prevent, control, and treat many minor health problems as well as more serious and complicated diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and cancer.”

How to use sage in cooking?

Only the leaves of the plant have spicy properties.

They are cut off during active flowering, dried, then transferred to glass or porcelain vessels, tightly closed with a lid, and stored in a dark place.

The spicy herb serves as a seasoning for fish, poultry, meat, and vegetables. It gives special properties to salads, canned food, and drinks – the taste of dishes becomes more saturated with a slight bitterness.

Sage is added to food in small quantities. Its aroma is colorful and strong, capable of drowning out more subtle odors. Excess spice can ruin food.

What is combined with sage?

Dried sage is an integral component of various spicy mixtures. It goes well with marjoram, rosemary, oregano, thyme, and juniper.

Sage is used in cooking in fresh, dried, and fried forms.

Add spice to give a piquant taste to veal, beef, and fish.
Powder from the leaves is used in the manufacture of beer, and salting lard.
It can be combined with cheese, and vegetables (pumpkin, zucchini, potatoes).
It makes soups with beans and peas cooked in meat broth more pleasant to taste. It is added to the broth after it is ready so that the flavor is not too saturated.
It is suitable for stuffing eggs, chicken, and turkey.

Powdered leaves and twigs are seasoned with fatty meats when stewing. At the same time, the meat becomes tender, tasty, and easier to digest.
Filling pies with a spoonful of crushed plant leaves will also be more fragrant.
Sour-milk products are also seasoned with it.
It is believed that it is able to reduce the amount of fat and make the taste of meat softer.
The spice helps to preserve the products longer because it prevents the appearance of bacteria.
Fried sage in cooking is put in hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken, and meat sandwiches.
Young fresh leaves of medicinal sage have a bitter-spicy taste. They are added to salad, and crumbled into vegetable stews and fish dishes.
Also, sage leaf powder is added to a plate with broth, omelet, boiled fish, and beef stew.
Sage is used as an additive to green tea varieties.
There are exquisite varieties of sage. Pineapple sage gives the dishes a fruity aroma. And elegant sage has a fragrant melon flavor.

 

#1. Zucchini baked with cheese, sage, and bacon. Healthy properties of sage and recipes for delicious dishes.

Try to cook stuffed zucchini with bacon, sage, cream, and goat cheese according to this recipe.

Zucchini baked with cheese, sage and bacon
Zucchini baked with cheese, sage, and bacon. Photo from pixabay

Ingredients for 6 servings:

Zucchini round 6 pcs.
Bacon (or smoked brisket) 5.29oz
Cream (fat content 35%) 1/2 cup
Onion 2 pieces
Goat cheese 7.0oz
Olive oil for frying and greasing
Salt to taste
Black pepper (ground) to taste
Sage (leaves) 2 tablespoons

Instruction:

Cooking time 1 hour 10 minutes

Preheat the oven to 392F. My zucchini cut off the top from them and clean the pulp with any handy spoon. I used a melon spoon, very convenient. Cleaned zucchini are installed in a refractory form.

Lightly fry the bacon so that it remains soft. We put it on paper and let the excess fat drain. Bacon can be replaced with smoked brisket, then roasting is not necessary.

Fry finely chopped onion in olive oil until transparent. The pulp of the zucchini is finely chopped and added to the onion. Let’s fry slightly (rather evaporate excess liquid).

At this time, cut the bacon into small pieces. We cut 6 pucks from the Chevre cheese, and cut the rest of the cheese into small cubes. Add bacon, cheese, and heavy cream to the stewed zucchini pulp. Simmer the filling for about 5 minutes on low heat. Salt, and pepper to taste.

Lubricate the zucchini outside with olive oil with a brush. Salt and pepper inside. Fill the zucchini with stuffing, and put a cheese washer and sage leaves on top. Bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes. Ready-made zucchini stuffed with goat cheese, bacon, and cream are served hot. Enjoy your meal!

#2.Ravioli with sage, walnuts, and ricotta

Ravioli with sage, walnuts, and ricotta is a quick and easy dish to prepare. In its raw form, sage leaves do not have much to themselves – they are rough and quite hard. But, as soon as they connect with heat and fat, they reveal their wide range of wonderful flavors.

Ravioli with sage, walnuts and ricotta
Ravioli with sage, walnuts, and ricotta. Photo from pixabay

Ingredients for 3 servings:

Ravioli (fresh, with any filling) 17.64oz
Ricotta 7.0oz
Lemon 1 pc.
Sage (crushed) 1 bunch
Butter 3 tablespoons
Walnuts (peeled) 2 tablespoons
Salt, black pepper to taste
For submission:
Grated parmesan (or other hard cheese).

Instruction:

Cooking time 20 minutes

Fry the walnuts in a dry frying pan for more flavor. We separate the sage leaves from the stalks and cut them quite large.

Boil the ravioli al dente, for 3-4 minutes in salted water. We throw the ravioli into a colander. In a saucepan, heat the butter and fry the sage.

Add the zest and juice of one lemon, and mix.
We lower the ravioli back into the pan and mix gently. Add the ricotta slices and sprinkle nuts on top. Mix lightly, but not too much. Pepper. Serve with heat from the heat, sprinkled with grated Parmesan on top. Enjoy your meal!

#3. Turkey baked with sage and garlic. Healthy properties of sage and recipes for delicious dishes.

Don’t know how to cook a turkey in the oven so that it turns out juicy and delicious? Take a look at this recipe. There is a fragrant filling with herbs and lemon and an oil marinade with zest. If you follow the instructions, you are guaranteed to get a really delicious turkey.

Turkey baked with sage and garlic
Turkey baked with sage and garlic. Photo from pixabay

Ingredients for 8 servings:

Turkey 1 piece
Onion 1 piece (large)
Apple 1 piece. (or 2 pcs. small)
Lemon 1 pc.
Fresh rosemary 2 sprigs
Sage (fresh) 1 bunch
Butter 5.29oz
Salt to taste
black pepper – to taste
Red wine 1 cup
Garlic 5 cloves
Olive oil 1 tablespoon
Dried thyme 2 teaspoons
Chili pepper (flakes) 1/4 teaspoon

Instruction:

Preparation 8 hours

Cooking time 2 hours 30 minutes

Mix butter at room temperature, salt, ground black pepper, and dried thyme into a homogeneous mass in a bowl of suitable volume. Add flakes of dried chili pepper, garlic passed through a press, olive oil, 20 pieces of crushed sage leaves, and finely grated lemon zest.

In the prepared turkey carcass, carefully separate the skin from the meat on the breast, wings, and legs with your hands. And distribute 2/3 of the sage-oil mixture under the turkey skin.

Prepare the stuffing for the turkey. Slice an apple, an onion, and a lemon (the one from which the zest was removed). Add sprigs of rosemary and remaining sage and fill the turkey belly with this.

Grease the whole turkey on top with the remaining oil mixture, and sprinkle with black pepper and salt flakes. Tie the legs with a culinary thread (twine) and wrap the wings under the back so that they do not burn. At this stage, cover everything with a cellophane bag and send it to the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, take the turkey out of the refrigerator 1 hour before cooking. Preheat the oven to 356F. Pour red wine into a small deep baking tray and cover it with foil so that it sags to the middle. Make a hole in the center to collect the juice. Put the grill on a baking sheet and put the turkey on top. Wrap the legs with foil so that they do not burn. Bake for about 2 hours.

Remove the turkey from the oven and let stand for 45 minutes before serving and cutting. Before serving, spread the contents of the turkey belly around the baked carcass. The juice collected in a baking tray, drained when baking the turkey, will serve as an excellent sauce. It can also be used to make a stuffing side dish for turkey. The turkey baked in the oven is ready. Enjoy your meal!

#4.Warm potato salad with sage

For a warm salad of new potatoes, a dressing is prepared for which olive oil is mixed with white balsamic vinegar, and mustard, and a little sugar is added to neutralize the vinegar acid. The finished salad can be decorated with flowers of chives.

Warm potato salad with sage
Warm potato salad with sage. Photo from pixabay

Ingredients for 3 servings:

New potatoes 17.64oz
Sage 3 sprigs
Onion (red) 2 pcs.
Chives (with flowers) to taste
For dressing:
White balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon
Olive oil 5 tablespoons
Mustard (sweet) 1/2 tablespoon
Sugar to taste.

Instruction:

Cooking time 25 minutes

While the new potatoes are cooking, we prepare the dressing. We will need olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, mustard, and sweet. Pour vinegar and olive oil into a cup and put mustard. Whisk-mix well and add a little sugar to taste to neutralize the acid of vinegar. We crumble the sage into a salad bowl.

We also crumble 1 onion there. Chop a bunch of chives into a salad bowl, leaving the flowers for decoration.

We put hot-boiled potatoes in a salad bowl immediately after draining the water, dividing the largest into parts. Fill with dressing, mix, and let stand for half an hour. Decorate with onion flowers.

#5.Crostini with baked butternut squash, ricotta, and sage. Healthy properties of sage and recipes for delicious dishes.

Crostini with baked butternut squash, ricotta and sage
Crostini with baked butternut squash, ricotta, and sage. Photo from pixabay

Ingredients for 5 servings:

Pumpkin squash 31.75oz
Olive oil 5 tablespoons
Light brown sugar 1 tablespoon
Sea salt, and pepper to taste
Sage (fresh leaf) 24 pcs.
Ricotta 1 cup
Lemon zest 1 teaspoon
Baguette (thick pieces) 12 pcs.
Garlic 1 clove
Lemon juice to taste.

Cooking recipe:

Cooking time 40 minutes

To cook Crostini with baked pumpkin butternut, ricotta, and sage, you need:

Mix the diced peeled pumpkin butternut with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sugar, put on a baking sheet, season with salt, and pepper, and bake at 396F. Stirring occasionally, until golden brown, until the pumpkin is soft (about 30 minutes). Let the baked pumpkin cool down.

In hot oil, cook the sage leaves until their edges begin to wrap (about 1-2 minutes). Put the fried sage leaves on a paper towel to remove excess fat.

Mix ricotta cheese, finely grated lemon zest, salt and pepper.

Grease the baguette slices on both sides with olive oil, using a cooking brush, and fry in a frying pan over medium heat or in the oven for 2 minutes on each side until the slices are browned. Allow to cool slightly and rub each slice with garlic.

Put 1 tablespoon of the ricotta mixture on each crostini, put cubes of baked pumpkin butternut on top, pour lemon juice and olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and garnish with sage leaves. Enjoy your meal!

(1) – Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Medicinal Properties of Sage (Salvia) to Prevent and Cure Illnesses such as Obesity, Diabetes, Depression, Dementia, Lupus, Autism, Heart Disease, and Cancer. Mohsen Hamidpour, Rafie Hamidpour, Soheila Hamidpour, and Mina Shahlari.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4003706/